Understanding the Impact of COVID-19 on Modern Slavery in Global Garment Supply Chains

在新冠肺炎中，供应英国市场的服装供应链发生了巨大变化。由于在政府强制实施的封锁中，对新衣服的需求大幅下降，品牌公司取消了订单，并拒绝为已经生产的商品付款，导致供应商无法支付工资。随着服装生产国准备面对中间挑战，包括订单量减少和品牌折扣请求，各国政府暂停了服装工人的最低工资，企业解雇了加入工会的工人。由于服装工人竞争的工作相对较少，民间社会、联合国组织和其他机构普遍担心，这些动态将助长和加剧企业对全球服装供应链中强迫劳动的需求，同时降低工人对体面工作条件的讨价还价能力。该项目将进行一项多国比较研究，以确定新冠肺炎是否、如何以及造成什么后果，使服装生产国更容易受到强迫劳动的伤害。它将使用一种创新的混合方法，包括：供应链地图；对工人和供应商的多国数字调查；对工人、商业代表、工会成员和政府官员的深入采访；以及对英格兰银行Covid公司融资工具数据的分析。借鉴我在之前的研究中成功开创的研究方法，该项目将产生紧急的基层数据，以加深对新冠肺炎对强迫劳动脆弱者的影响以及发现和预防这种影响的努力的理解。该项目将把弱势工人放在研究的核心，目的是帮助他们影响企业实践和政府政策。

Amidst COVID-19, garment supply chains feeding the United Kingdom markets have changed dramatically. As demand for new clothes has plummeted amidst government-imposed lockdowns, brand companies have cancelled orders and refused to pay for goods already produced, leaving suppliers unable to pay wages. As garment producing countries prepare to face intermediate challenges, including reduced order volumes and brand requests for discounts, governments have suspended minimum wages for garment workers, businesses have laid off unionised workers. As garment workers compete for relatively little work, there is widespread concern among civil society, United Nations organisations, and others that these dynamics will fuel and exacerbate business demand for forced labour within the global garment supply chain, while lowering workers' bargaining power for decent work conditions. This project will undertake a multi-country comparative study to determine whether, how, and with what consequences COVID-19 is deepening vulnerability to forced labour in garment-producing countries. It will use an innovative mixed-methods approach including: supply chain mapping; a multi-country digital survey of workers and suppliers; in-depth interviews with workers, business representatives, trade unionists, and government officials; and analysis of Bank of England Covid Corporate Financing Facility data. Drawing on research methods successfully pioneered through my previous research, this project will generate urgent, ground-level data to deepen understandings of the impact of COVID-19 on those vulnerable to forced labour and efforts to detect and prevent it. The project will put vulnerable workers at the heart of the research with the aim of helping them to influence corporate practices and government policy.