Lessons We Should All Learn from the Leicester Modern Slavery Scandal

Lessons We Should All Learn from the Leicester Modern Slavery Scandal

Our relatively wealthy nation has been slow to recognise modern slavery is happening in our country, in our towns, around the corner and on our doorsteps. The ignorant shock of discovering how close to home the issue really is has sent shockwaves through the nation, and, even the world, with an estimated 0.34% of the world’s 40m slave population residing in the UK.

Jaswal Fashions Ltd, a Leicester-based clothes factory, have been accused of human rights exploitation by the Sunday Times, both by significantly underpaying their employees and exposing them to Covid 19 by failing in health and safety processes, allegations which Jaswal Fashions vehemently deny.

Boohoo.com utilise Jaswal Fashions in their supply chain, thus have come under heavy criticism by the media for potential failings in their due diligence process.

But where did Boohoo.com go wrong? If, indeed, they did go wrong. After all, we seem to forget that Boohoo.com themselves do not stand accused of direct employment of modern slave victims, but of failing the basic due diligence required to mitigate risk of offences occurring within their supply chain. Yet the trial by media has been swift and brutal, resulting in potentially irreparable reputational and financial damage, at a time when the fashion industry was already suffering losses due to the pandemic. 

Despite Gangmasters and the Labour Abuse Authority initial inspections finding no illegal activity in the Jaswal Fashion Ltd factory, it seems the damage has gone deep as a result of the media coverage, with Boohoo.com taking a 49% drop in share price in the first two weeks of July, based entirely on the reputational damage caused by the failings in the company’s supplier management process when engaging with Jaswal Fashion Ltd.

Jaswal Fashion Ltd, have, coincidentally, put in a legal complaint against The Sunday Times over the original article, though one would suspect this is too little action, far too late, given the rapid suspension of engagement by a string of highly recognizable brands, including Next, Amazon and ASOS. 

So what lessons can we learn from this harrowing accusation? The result may be no criminal charges, however Boohoo.com have already suffered reputational damage which they may struggle to recover from.

Firstly, campaigning for awareness and political action to tackle this issue with more rigour. Priti Patel’s claim that ‘cultural sensitives’ are the reason endemic abuse has been enabled somewhat detracts from the systematic failures of policy and process right at the top of the political spectrum.

Andrew Bridgen (MP for North West Leicester) publically admitted sweatshops in Leicester have been an, “open secret” for more than 10 years. Public officials have known about the issues and repeatedly and consistently failed to act upon.

Surely we must take this opportunity to address the unacceptable lack of attention the matter has previously drawn. Blindly, ignorantly and intentionally disregarding what is in plain sight is beyond unethical. We have a moral obligation to pressure lawmakers into improving investigation, trial and reformation.

It is our duty as procurement professionals to ensure our due diligence and supplier management processes are not only adequate but best-in-class and world leading, in order to uncover criminal activity and ensure we do not engage with at-risk suppliers. By implementation of regular audits, supplier code of conduct, whistle-blowing lines open to all of our and our suppliers’ employees, we can look to mitigate risk and, one day, eradicate the terrible injustices happening both at home and abroad.

As Malcolm Harrison, CIPS Group CEO, recently said, during the Procurement Power List 2020 event, “The core responsibility of procurement is to understand your supply chain. You must have the right checks, the right controls and the right audits in your supply chain. You cannot hide behind this.”

We are only as good as our processes- let us, as an industry, commit to sharing and implementing best practice process, to continue the imperative fight against modern slavery.

Disclaimer: This represents the individual and independent insights of Ngaire-Elizabeth Guzzetti.