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

在COVID-19疫情期间，英国市场的服装供应链发生了巨大变化。由于政府实施封锁，对新服装的需求大幅下降，品牌公司取消了订单，拒绝支付已经生产的货物，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要求折扣，政府暂停了服装工人的最低工资，企业解雇了工会工人。由于服装工人竞争的工作相对较少，民间社会、联合国组织和其他组织普遍担心，这些动态将助长和加剧全球服装供应链中对强迫劳动的商业需求，同时降低工人争取体面工作条件的议价能力。该项目将进行多国比较研究，以确定COVID-19是否、如何以及有什么后果正在加深服装生产国对强迫劳动的脆弱性。它将采用创新的混合方法，包括：供应链绘图;对工人和供应商的多国数字调查;对工人、企业代表、工会成员和政府官员的深入采访;以及对英格兰银行新型冠状病毒企业融资工具数据的分析。该项目将借鉴我之前成功开创的研究方法，收集紧急的实地数据，以加深对COVID-19对易受强迫劳动影响的人的影响以及发现和预防措施的理解。该项目将把易受强迫劳动影响的工人作为研究的核心，旨在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.