Systemic Exploitation and Modern Slavery

Systemic Exploitation and Modern Slavery

How do Global and Domestic Brands violate Labour and Human Rights in Low Wage Chinese Factories?

Abstract

Slavery has been defined as forced labour which also includes servitude and human trafficking. International authorities like International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states that holding people in servitude and forcing people to perform labour amounts to slavery. Slavery in factories and sweatshops is quite common in China because people are held in servitude where they are forced to work under safe and bad conditions. Amidst all these, questions can be raised against the sufficiency of labour laws and rights since grave violations can be identified. In this regard, the Chinese government as well as international authorities have responsibilities to prevent modern slavery. Clear violations of Universal Declaration of Human Rights and ICCPR can be spotted based on thee nature of slavery that exist in China. Global business entities not only save a lot of money on production but also violate the Modern Slavery Code of Conduct as introduced by the Investment Migration Council and labour rights in this process. Most importantly, amidst all these, governments and business entities fail to give regard to the fundamentals of human rights since labour-intensive industries are often prone to using forced labour with very low wages. Workers face inhumane discrimination based on their age and gender which leads to violation of labour rights under international and national legal regimes. This research explores how systemic exploitation and modern slavery exist in Chinese sweatshops and how age and gender discrimination led to the violation of labour rights. To provide a detailed and vivid explanation, this research primarily focuses on identifying how labour rights under national and international labour laws are violated to provide a qualitative aspect. The quantitative aspect of the research Is aimed to provide a comprehensive statistical analysis. Such a quantitative approach would help in not only explaining the number of people affected due to labour rights violations in Chinese sweatshops but also in understanding the numerical extent of the impact of age and gender discrimination.

Table of Contents

List of Tables

Acknowledgement

Introduction

Background and Definition

Labour exploitation has been evident and a key element behind the quick success of many business entities with a global outreach. Modern slavery is a term that equates to extreme exploitation given the standards of labour treatment set by national and international authorities. According to the construction of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), a variety of coercive labour practices, including indentured labour, debt bondage, forced labour, servitude, and human trafficking, are collectively referred to as modern slavery. Some academics and activists, on the other hand, disagree with the phrase modern slavery, seeing it as vague and ambiguous with no predictive value. They point out that those who use this phrase often distort the nature of the serious labour exploitation issue. Past studies have noted that the supply chain in China involves modern slavery due to the increased demand for low-cost production and the availability of low-cost labour in China. It might not be currently possible to determine with accuracy the number of people affected by modern slavery globally due to its complexity and invisibility in the supply chain; however, the ILO estimated in the past that at least tens of millions of people are victims of modern slavery worldwide. However, such a number was an earlier estimation when modern slavery was increasing. As per the recent estimation made by another report, China ranks 2nd with more than 5 million modern-day slavery in terms of numbers whereas North Korea is the country leading the chart in terms of the highest rate of people experiencing modern slavery. A very similar number was presented by the Global Slavery Index which estimated more than 5 million people in China and 11 million in India experiencing modern slavery in 2021. Therefore, it is reasonable to claim that countries like China with very high populations are prone to being the manufacturing hub for many global brands. This has led to the existence of forced labour and human trafficking and has been a growing problem in the last few decades. It must be noted that supply chains are used to produce items that are sold on the global market by taking advantage of the economic exploitation of cheap human resources made possible by social hierarchies and global inequalities. Many supply chains are characterised by a continuous effort to cut costs, but in the case of slave labour, the majority of the profits are kept for themselves and never make it to actors lower down the chain since the origin of the goods created by slaves is hidden.

Research Objectives

This research is focused on exploring how modern slavery and systemic exploitation of labours occur in Chinese factories and sweatshops. In this process, the research takes into account the intersection of gender, age and labour rights that contribute towards modern slavery in China. In this process, the research takes into account various labour rights under UDHR, ICCPR and other legislative scopes to evaluate how business entities are violating those rights in Chinese sweatshops. Along with a qualitaitive approach, a comprehensive statistical analysis of labour data from Chinese factories and other countries provide a detailed insight into how labours are exploited without having any scope of redressal and remedy. The qualitative approach assists in understanding the nature of modern slavery in China and quantitative approach helps in gaining knowledge on the extent of modern slavery that exists in countries lime China where labour intensive manufacturing activities are outsourced by most multinational business entities.

Research Questions

For the purpose and focus of this dissertation, the research aims to answer how labour rights of workers in Chinese factories granted under national and international laws are violated?

In this process, the research also answers whether modern slavery as defined by international authorities is sufficient to cover the extent of slavery taking place in Chinese factories?; whether gender, age and varied labour rights play an important role in facilitating labour exploitation?; whether the Chinese government has failed to give sufficient regard to human rights guaranteed under international treaties and covenants?; and whether the current legal and regulatory framework for preventing slavery is sufficient to safeguard the labour rights of people?

Nature and Extent of Slavery in China

For the purpose and focus of this research discussed above, it is essential to look at the extent of modern slavery that has been taking place in China and of course around the world. In today's globalised and extensively outsourced supply chains, practically every industry, including the automotive, electronics, textile, and apparel sectors runs the danger of utilising slave labour at some point in the chain. In 2014, the Global Slavery Index reported the existence of more than 35 million slaves worldwide which is an alarming number considering the enactment of several international authorities to govern labour standards. In 2013, the number was estimated to be around 30 million worldwide and around 3 million in China. It shows a significant increase in just one year and hence it is not surprising to see 50 million worldwide slaves and over 5 million in China in 2021. In fact, it would not be surprising if the worldwide number of slaves crossed the 100 million mark within the next decade.

According to the American First Policy Institute, the Chinese government has formulated policies and entered into cross-border agreements for better international trade but did not give sufficient regard to human and labour rights leading to major violations of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This has also been affifmed by recent reports from the US Department of State which talked about how the Chinese government and its policies are disregarding labour rights. China's relations with a number of nations have been strained as a result of these policies, especially with those that have sizable Chinese diaspora populations and are worried about how religious minorities are treated. The serious human rights violations that arise from these campaigns such as arbitrary detentions, forced labour, and cultural destruction have alarmed the international community, including the United States. There have been appeals for international intervention as a result of the persecution of religious minorities, including the Uyghurs, being compared to genocide.

Practices that severely restrict workers' freedom and cause them immense suffering, such as forced labour, human trafficking, and unlawful employment, are typical examples of slavery in contemporary society. Modern slavery has drawn the attention of governments and stakeholders, including nongovernmental organisations and the media, because of the significant harm it does to the supply chain. There are many reasons why modern slavery is so frequent in Chinese sweatshops including a lack of proper regulations, limited enforcement of human rights conventions and international agreements and even poor government insight into the issue. Economic Organisation and industrial development led to trade and commerce progress in China rapidly for many centuries when business entities from Europe started to use labour-intensive activities which eventually led to slavery due to increased commercial greed and lack of governmental intention to prevent slavery since increased commercial activities is not only good for the international business entities but also for the domestic government that earn money through taxes and tariffs. Therefore, it is reasonable to claim that the presence of labour and human rights legislations, regulations and covenants is insufficient to prevent slavery. In addition to that, the way slavery takes place in the contemporary world is so well coined that it is able to bypass compliance without being sanctioned appropriately. Lastly, business entities with a global outreach do not seem to hesitate in forcing people to work for very low wages and in harsh working conditions to meet their unrealistic business goals.

Profiting on Vulnerability

Based on the general notions about modern slavery around the world, it t important to note that modern slavery is also forced and coerced but in a different way. A recent report stated that the Chinese media has started to portray and unfold forced labour and slavery in the local communities and also tried to show what role human trafficking plays in this regard. It shows a critical issue in relation to forced labour since workers are not put into bonded labour and rather the market and economic factors are forcing people to work for low wages because of a lack of better alternatives. The Chinese manufacturing industry is prone to using low-wage workers and hence workers find it difficult to get a job with higher wages since sweatshops in China have been normalised and market forces have made people incapable of finding a better-paying job. There have been protests in China with regard to low wages and widespread lack of employment which are the primary factors why modern slavery persists. The mistreatment of foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong, a city with one of the biggest concentrations of these workers in the world ten per cent of the labour market and who are entitled to some statutory labour rights has come under increased scrutiny from the media and regional NGOs in recent years. Another significant element is the susceptibility of employees who rely on their employers to fulfil their legal obligations. Employees and employers have a close relationship since there is a real risk that they may try to leave. Although widespread unemployment makes it easier for global and domestic brands to get workers almost at their will, it is essential to have global support to assist the victims of modern slavery in China. Despite years of awareness-raising by NGOs and the media, coercion is still prevalent within various industries, especially in the manufacturing industry where most functions are labour-intensive.

Research Methodology

For the purpose of this research, it is important to visit evidence from past analyses and collect data only from authentic sources that can reasonably be relied upon. Considering the primary focus of this research, qualitative evidence has been referred to substantiate the claims in relation to labour rights violations. Cases, international treaties, industry and government reports provide sufficient evidence to address the research questions. Since this research is also based on a quantitative approach involving statistics collected from past studies and literature, it is essential to provide a literature review in order to gain insight into what has been studied in the past in relation to modern slavery in low-wage factories. In this process, the research further narrows down to understanding the picture in the context of sweatshops in China. The gathering of evidence and data has primarily been done based on secondary research and this can be considered a limitation since first-hand research has not been performed. As far as the quantitative approach is concerned, data gathered from scholarly and government sources have been relied upon for providing a comprehensive statistical analysis. For this purpose, this research uses the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to provide a vivid analysis of the extent of slavery that modern society has been experiencing. Since there are several layers and patches of data collected from previous studies and government reports, SPSS serves as the perfect tool to break down an important social science issue like slavery.

Literature Review

The term slave is referred to a condition where the fundamental rights are curtailed and exercise of power by authorities is not limited based on the Slavery Convention of 1926. The correct definition of slavery is now crucial because it is now recognised as a form of exploitation in both the United Nations and European instruments on trafficking from 2000 and 2005. Additionally, the crimes of enslavement and sexual slavery are now considered international crimes for which a person may be tried by the International Criminal Court. The 1926 League of Nations concept, which continues to be the accepted definition of slavery in international law, then emerges from the shadows of neglect. The term modern slavery includes almost every kind of human exploitation and trafficking but does not have an exhaustive definition. Although forced labour and human trafficking has been defined under international law, modern slavery has to be understood from a broad perspective. The Modern Slavery Bill introduced by the UK Government suggested that modern slavery is an umbrella concept that includes every form of slavery. Article 8 of ICCPR provides for a constructive definition of slavery that can serve as a guiding principle for countries to formulate binding statutory guidance. Hence, it shows that the term modern slavery is not defined and rather slavery in general has been defined by most authorities. There are national plans and bills from countries like UK that shed some light on what modern slavery is, however, it is better to keep the concept broad so that its scope can expanded to include any form of human exploitation.

Once we have an idea on the definitional scope of the term modern slavery, it is important to understand the actual scope under law rather than the ordinary or literal meeaning of the phrase. For a judicial perspective based on the recent decision in R v DS modern slavery meaning has to be kept broad so that most slavery related activities fall under the scope of modern slavery including human traffikcing. According to a study done recently noted that it is difficult for the Chinese government to prevent human trafficking and hence the government is required to address poverty and gender inequality that leads to people finding income source which then leads to human trafficking. According to International Labour Organisation, Yunnan province in China has seen violation of international treaties like International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour and Sub-Regional Project to Combat Trafficking in Children and Women due to increased levels of trafficking and sexual exploitation. Another analysis showed that women and children in China are vulnerable to forced marriage, bonded labour and sexual exploitation because of power imbalance.

According to the Global Slavery Index, there are almost 6 million people in China who are subject to slavery in modern society in 2023. This is because China's economy has changed over the last few decades, making it the second biggest in the world today. As per the World Economic Forum, a significant portion of this shift may be attributed to China's economy focusing on producing low-cost, labour-intensive commodities for export. Unchecked capitalism is typified by Western firms with supply chains that reach into China, using their purchasing power to push down prices and take advantage of local producers. In order to stay in the supply chain, local manufacturers have to reduce expenses, even if it means breaking national labour regulations. And this is exactly what has been taking place in China, where a large number of cheap producers engage in cruel work practices. Another study done in relation to the labour forces in China, it has been noted that Chinese sweatshop workers are coerced to stay in such low-paying jobs because of unrestricted power and discretion given to the management officials who are also kind of slaves to the owners and stakeholders. According to the author, supply networks where labour is inexpensive, well-behaved, and unprotected by law will be targeted by global capitalists. Additionally, the author discovered that labour expenses are always rising due to the returns on capital, which results in a labour surplus. It means that the authority to acquire the victim or to utilise their work or services with essentially no restrictions. When a victim of forced labour feels compelled to continue delivering their labour or services or to quit their workplace due to the use of coercion, threats, or deceit, they are said to be in a state of servitude.

Managers in China have the authority to impose a variety of sanctions on a workforce that is predominantly composed of migrants, and regulations are strictly implemented, particularly in the industrial and service sectors. There are a lot of migrant labourers in China, and there are shady enterprises where exploitation can happen behind closed doors. These factors have been said to cause employers to prioritise profit and production over the well-being of their workers. These factories' working circumstances are characterised by frequent exploitation, unforgiving physical conditions, long hours, and poor pay. Furthermore, it has been reported in many Chinese factory reports that workers face physical abuse if they do not meet performance targets. Therefore, it is clear that higher management officials and managers tend to control how the labourers are treated rather than the labour laws and standards being enforced to safeguard the rights and interests of the workers. It can also be seen how aspects of Chinese culture related to discretion avoidance and unchecked authority influence managers' employment of control techniques to govern employee conduct, creating situations at work that resemble contemporary slavery. The power disparity between managers and subordinates makes it common for subordinates to follow instructions. Lower-level employees, particularly those from rural China, submit to their superiors' orders and give them bribes in order to escape the uncertainty of losing their jobs.

Appendices and Bibliography

Journals

Chen Hana, Fu Jiab, Mengqi Jiangc and Lujie Chen, Modern slavery in supply chains: a systematicliterature review (2022) 27(4) International Journal of Logistics Research and Applications 1.

Jenny Jing Wang, How managers use culture and controls to impose a 996 work regime in China that constitutes modern slavery (2020) Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand.

Ken Whang, Filial piety and loyalty: two types of social identification in Confucianism (1999) 2 types of social identification in Confucianism 163.

Martin Wilbur, Industrial Slavery in China During the Former Han Dynasty (2011) 3(1) The Journal of Economic History 56.

Robert Caruana, Andrew Crane, Stefan Gold and Genevieve LeBaron, Modern Slavery in Business: The Sad and Sorry State of a Non-Field (2021) 60(2) Business and Society 251, 258.

Stefan Gold, Alexander Trautrims and Zoe Trodd, Modern slavery challenges to supply chain management (2015) 20(5) Supply Chain Management: An International Journal 485.

Web Sources

Dara Masita and Pauliina Majasaari, Forced Labour in China: A Tool for Oppressing Ethnic Minorities (2024) < HYPERLINK "https://www.ghrd.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Report-Oppression-of-ethnic-minorities-through-the-use-of-forced-labour-april-2024.pdf" h https://www.ghrd.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Report-Oppression-of-ethnic-minorities-through-the-use-of-forced-labour-april-2024.pdf> (accessed 27 July 2024).

Dharvi Vaid, '11 Million People Exploited in India, 5 Million in China, 1.8 Million in Russia: Report (24 May 2023) The Wire < HYPERLINK "https://thewire.in/rights/50-million-people-trapped-in-modern-slavery-report" h https://thewire.in/rights/50-million-people-trapped-in-modern-slavery-report> (accessed 27 July 2024).

Matias Perttula, Modern Day Slavery: Chinas Persecution & Economy of Forced Labor (23 january 2023) AFPI < HYPERLINK "https://americafirstpolicy.com/issues/modern-day-slavery-chinas-persecution-economy-of-forced-labor" h https://americafirstpolicy.com/issues/modern-day-slavery-chinas-persecution-economy-of-forced-labor> (accessed 27 July 2024).

Peter Bengtsen, Chinas Forced Labor Problem (21 March, 2018) The Diplomat < HYPERLINK "https://thediplomat.com/2018/03/chinas-forced-labor-problem/" h https://thediplomat.com/2018/03/chinas-forced-labor-problem/> (accessed 27 July 2024).

South China Morning Post, 2.9 million trapped in modern-day slavery in China, 30 million worldwide (17 October, 2013) < HYPERLINK "https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1333894/29-million-trapped-modern-day-slavery-china-30-million-worldwide" h https://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1333894/29-million-trapped-modern-day-slavery-china-30-million-worldwide> (accessed 27 July 2024).

Reports

Anna Fleck, Countries With the Highest Prevalence of Slavery (24 August 2024) Statista < HYPERLINK "https://www.statista.com/chart/30666/estimated-number-of-people-in-modern-slavery-per-1000/" h https://www.statista.com/chart/30666/estimated-number-of-people-in-modern-slavery-per-1000/> (accessed 27 July 2024).

Global Slavery Index, Modern slavery in China (2023) < HYPERLINK "https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/country-studies/china/" h https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/country-studies/china/? (accessed 26 July 2024).

International Labour Organisation, Global Estimates of Modern Slavery < HYPERLINK "https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575540.pdf" h https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575540.pdf> (accessed 26 July 2024).

World Economic Forum, 8 things you need to know about Chinas economy (23 June, 2016) < HYPERLINK "https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/8-facts-about-chinas-economy/" h https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/8-facts-about-chinas-economy/> (accessed 26 July 2024).