It was the second such workshop that Samsung Electronics and the IOM have hosted – following a similar event held in Kuala Lumpur in June – as part of an ongoing effort to address modern slavery in the electronics industry.

According to statistics from the IOM, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Walk Free Foundation, approximately 40 million people worldwide are victims of modern forms of slavery. Of these, an estimated 25 million people are subjected to forced labor. Many are hidden in plain sight, working across a variety of industries and geographies.

Eastern Europe and Central Asia have the highest rates of modern slavery, with an estimated 3.6 million victims. Some 91 percent of these individuals are believed to be victims of forced labor.

Like the Kuala Lumpur event, the Jászfényszaru workshop was held to raise awareness within Samsung and among its business partners of the labor rights of migrant workers in the company’s supply chains. Samsung’s commitment to preventing, identifying and mitigating unethical recruitment practices is laid out in its Migrant Worker Guidelines, which the company covered in detail during the event.

The workshop also included presentations from Samsung on basic workers’ rights, and from the IOM on the characteristics and industry-specific risks of modern slavery. Speakers also outlined Hungary’s legal framework for preventing forced labor and discussed business cases for taking action to counter modern slavery, as well as strategies to ensure ethical recruitment practices.

Forced labor remains a critically important issue around the world. Going forward, with the IOM’s support, Samsung Electronics will continue its efforts to ensure that workers’ rights are protected throughout its global supply chain.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), around 40 million people worldwide are unfortunately the victims of modern slavery which today takes many different forms. Of these 40 million, 25 million people find themselves the victim of forced labor, often hidden in plain sight yet working across all kinds of industries and geographies. One-fourth of this number are migrant workers, meaning they are working in a country other than that in which they were born. Achieving safe labor migration requires the involvement of various actors across countries of origin, transit and destination.

This training for the Malaysian corporation and supply partners on forced labor and ethical recruitment was held at the Setia City Convention Center in Setia Alam, Malaysia, and gathered around 80 managers working in Samsung’s supply chain.

Participants learnt about the key characteristics and risks of modern slavery, as well as best practices to counter it. This included ethical recruitment, due diligence, and strategies to identify and tackle unethical employment practices. The discussions also highlighted to the attendees the various policies and regulations currently in force in Malaysia to prevent modern-day slavery.

This training is part Samsung Electronics’ ongoing efforts towards building the business capacity to address modern slavery. A key focus point of these efforts is to raise awareness within the company and its business partners of the protection of the labor rights of migrant workers active in its supply chains; Samsung’s commitment to prevent, identify and mitigate unethical recruitment practices is laid out in its Migrant Worker Guidelines.

Despite their key role in today’s globalized economy, migrant workers remain a vulnerable group. IOM and Samsung Electronics are collaborating to raise awareness and inspire action among all its employees, sub-contractors and stakeholders to help eradicate forced labor.

Samsung Electronics has adopted a training scheme and a wider commitment to fair and safe treatment of migrant workers. The drive comes at a time when there is increasing interest in migrant workers, particularly in Malaysia. There are already large numbers of migrant workers in the country, particularly in global manufacturing and agriculture supply chains.

Problems of migrant workers in Malaysia also come from its geographical aspect, including the sheer size of Malaysia and its free-flowing border with neighboring Indonesia. In this unavoidable environment, massive improvements based on proactive efforts are necessary to resolve the threatening issues, such as forced labor and exploitation of migrants.

Guidelines

For Samsung, this meant a campaign of activities to make sure workers from overseas are treated fairly. Firstly, the company announced a new set of guidelines at the end of last year. The Samsung Migrant Worker Guidelines with support from BSR (Business for Social Responsibility), came to eradicate forced or coercive labor.

And these guidelines aren’t just for Samsung internally, they are also essential for the company’s partners, labor suppliers, and recruiting agencies to establish an appropriate recruiting culture under the guidelines of the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC).

Clarity is key

Following the Guidelines, Samsung conducted training in March 2017 attended by about 60 people from first-tier suppliers, labor sourcing company and recruitment agencies. Through the training, Samsung hopes to make its employment of migrant workers as transparent as possible. The training was focused on sharing the key aspects of the guideline to explain that commission for recruitment is prohibited, contracts must be provided in the employee’s mother language, and the company must provide travel expenses to enable employees to return to their home countries after the contract term is complete. Additionally, to protect the freedom of the workers, Samsung and its partners are also prohibited from storing employees’ identification cards forcibly.

Because human rights abuses often take place in opaque infrastructures, Samsung will protect workers by giving them full clarity of what their job will entail. They will be fully informed of what to expect from their roles and they will also be told about illegal fees they should avoid before, during and after their employment. All of this will ensure that no employees are working under duress.

One of attendees from Samsung’s partners in Malaysia said “Through the training program, I understood key items that company has to comply with Samsung Migrant Worker Guideline and EICC standard”. The attendee added “I have already started to set up the proper process in the management system”.

Also at the end of the training, HR Senior manager, Mr. Yeap in Samsung Electronics (M) Sdn Bhd highlighted that it was very important to work together with our partners to implement these guidelines and to strengthen fair recruitment process through the supply chain taking into account key stakeholders, such as suppliers, labor sourcing companies and recruitment agencies.

What’s next?

Samsung will continue the training going forward as necessary, but for Samsung, this commitment doesn’t end with the training. In this year, Samsung will conduct an on-site inspection of its partners and labor suppliers. The company will also continue to review its processes to make sure they are fair for all workers.

Forced labor, slave labor and human trafficking are a big problem that will require a staunch effort from companies all over the world. Samsung cannot tackle the issue on its own but the company is playing its part to make a difference and ensure that workers continue to be a priority.