IACL General Report : Contemporary Forms of Slavery, including Causes and Consequences

It should be the source of grave concern that fundamental principles and rights at work – on the freedom of association, forced labour, child labour, equality law and occupational safety and health – are consistently and systemically breached across the global economy. The 2013 Rana Plaza factory fire that killed 1,134 workers barely weeks after corporate auditors had declared the enterprise safe should have been a global wakeup call about the risks of leaving the foxes to guard the chicken coup. But more than a decade on since that tragedy, despite a flurry of mixed public-private, international-local experimentalist engagements, there have been many more tragedies and growing confirmation that labour law across the globe is observed in the breach. The norm in the global economy may well be non-compliance. [...]