New principles to drive tech-based worker engagement

Beth Holzman, Good World Solutions, and Dan Viederman, Humanity United, talk to Ian Welsh about the new West Principles for worker engagement on forced labour

Companies don’t know what is going on in their supply chains on human rights and forced labour, and social audits have proved to be inadequate. The Worker Engagement Supported by Technology (West) Principles are a set of guidelines for technology-driven efforts to engage workers in global supply chains. Technology has the capacity to scale worker engagement and data collection, and to help business better understanding migration patterns. The eight principles fall into four distinct stages: design, engage, analyse and utilise data.

They aim to maximize the impact of technology-driven efforts to engage workers in global supply chains and ensure they can work with dignity and free from abuse. Initiated by a group of technology providers, the principles seek to engage stakeholders at all levels of global supply chains – including workers, worker organisations, the private sector, and governments – to collectively develop a roadmap to operationalise their use.