Our Programs & Initiatives

HELP WANTED:

Hiring, Human Trafficking and Slavery in the Global Economy

We released a major report from a year-long investigation that illustrates the prevalence of forced labor and human trafficking across multiple sectors. We also launched a website to help direct the many stakeholder groups with the questions needed to ask and steps needed to take in order to eradicate forced labor and slavery in supply chains around the world. Verite’s HELP WANTED report and website offer the key questions needed to be asked by anyone who is connected to migrant workers and global supply chains.

Reports available for download:

 

Cocoa Verification

As secretariat Verité administers and facilitates the activities of the International Cocoa Verification Board (ICVB). We were selected by the cocoa industry in June 2007 to design the Road Map that would lead to credible, independent and transparent verification. The creation of the ICVB is the central outcome of the Road Map's implementation. Verité maintains its unbiased position as we do not have a seat on the board but rather serves to facilitate the decision-making process. Read more about this initiative here.
 

Tomato Harvesting

Verité has partnered with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to implement and monitor the "Fair Food" program for tomato pickers in Florida. We are working with companies that have agreed to work only with suppliers who are paying their workers the "penny-per-pound" increase.
 

Strengthening Civil Society in China

Sustained improvements in working conditions will not take hold in China until Chinese civil society can more effectively advocate on behalf of workers. Verité is providing knowledge and skills to Chinese professionals in NGOs and academic institutions so that they can engage labor rights and corporate responsibility issues.

One recent output of this on-going program is China's first textbook on corporate responsibility targeted at provincial-level universities, the source of many of China's enterprise managers.
 

Campaign on Foreign Contract Workers

Debt-bondage is a common occurrence among foreign workers, with long-term negative effects that extend beyond the factory floor. The communities dependent on remittances from overseas laborers suffer from illegally reducing wages and other discriminatory and illegal practices. The high incidence of these problems among migrant workers in the region provided the rationale for the Campaign's launch in Southeast Asia. The program explored conditions and practices in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, Jordan, Malaysia and Taiwan.

Current focus:

  • We are working with the governments of Taiwan and the Philippines to create alternatives to the current private broker structure which leads to excessive fees and exploitation of workers.
  • We are researching the broker mechanisms that capture domestic workers in India and South Asians traveling for work to the Middle East.
  • We are investigating the ways in which Asians enter modern-day slavery in US agriculture.

We will publicize our findings towards the end of 2009. For more information, contact us.

 

India forum on CSR in the Information and Communications Electronic (ICTE) Sector

Verité is co-founder with our India partner, ASK, of the India Forum for Improving Workplace Standards in the ICTE Sector.

  • This forum serves to improve the safety and standards of ICTE workplaces in India and workers' quality of life within those communities. Our objectives:
  • To create a platform for members to understand each others' interests, accommodate differences and facilitate cooperation for working conditions in the ICTE sector;
  • To increase awareness around key issues and concerns in the sector;
  • To create a solutions-oriented and open environment for problem-solving.

Members of the Forum include corporate industry representatives, HP India, Deki Electronics and Philips. NGO representatives include Toxics Link, CIVIDEP, ASK, the Consumer Electronics and Appliances Manufacturers Association and Electronics Industries Association of India.