Large publicly traded companies would have to disclose in their annual reports any measures they take to ensure their supply chains do not engage in human trafficking, slave labor or child labor, according to a bill introduced to the US House of Representatives.
If the bill passes, companies with more than $100 mn in global gross receipts would be required to include in their annual reports to the SEC descriptions of policies they have in place to prevent such abuses in their supply chain. The information, according to the bill, would be ‘prominently’ displayed on the SEC website as well as the websites of the filing companies.
The bill, introduced by representatives Chris Smith and Carolyn Maloney, was timed to coincide with the publishing of the US State Department’s 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report, which calls on governments to ensure greater transparency in the business world in relation to human trafficking and child and slave labor. Senator Richard Blumenthal will introduce companion legislation in the Senate, according to a news release by Maloney and Smith announcing the bill.
‘Some companies may participate knowingly in human trafficking to pad the bottom line; others are willfully ignorant of where and how their inexpensive products are made; and still others simply do not know,’ Smith says. ‘The bottom line is there is no excuse for a company’s complicity or ignorance in the suffering endured by human trafficking victims hidden away in the supply chain. It is not enough for a company to say it is unaware of human trafficking in its product line.’
Disclosure would include corporate investigations into working conditions in the supply chain, policies prohibiting employees of supply chain companies from having sex with minors, and measures to review policies of supply chain companies. The bill would also require companies to ‘describe any risks identified within the supply chain, and the measures taken toward eliminating those risks.’
According to the bill, the US Department of Labor last year identified 136 goods from 74 countries that were made by forced or child labor.
