So lovely to see so many of you here in London during LME Week. In-person working sessions are always so energising! 🌟
Do check out the learnings from the latest modern slavery investigation to hit the news in the UK. If you have time, I recommend watching the BBC documentary to get a sense of what modern slavery in business supply chains looks like in practice. It’s called ‘modern’ slavery because we can’t see the shackles - but the shackles described by these men trafficked here from Czech Republic are very real.
Expect a much greater focus on modern slavery following this investigation - and definitely take a look at our top takeaways for business below. ⏱️
Former Prime Minister Theresa May (who introduced the UK Modern Slavery Act as home secretary in 2015) has said that this case shows large companies are not properly looking into their supply chains and has committed to looking into what new laws are needed for companies (as part of her role leading the Global Commission on Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking.)
And what do we know about climate change and modern slavery? That there is a very strong link ⛓️💥. Climate crisis induced migration increases vulnerability to modern slavery. In addition, we are seeing increasing evidence that renewable industries are also reliant on forced labour. So companies: time to take modern slavery seriously, if ever there was one.
On Monday, we closed our last remaining coal-fired power plant here in the UK. This is huge. We are the first major economy to achieve this milestone. Change is possible. ⭐️
Consider this: we relied on coal for our electricity almost exclusively in the 1900s. This reliance was still at 96% by 1950. The decline only really started in the 1980s-1990s - we were still at 36% in 2000. And now we’re at 0%.
Union representatives have been aware since 2015 of the need for a meaningful transition plan for the 154 workers affected by the upcoming closure of the site. They started in earnest in 2020 (GMB, Prospect & Unite the Union) working with management to structure a transition plan. The key here is that - yes, jobs were lost - but the transition was done in such a way that workers were part of creating their next steps. Some workers transferred to other sites, some workers were supported to access jobs elsewhere, some workers took a break/ early retirement.
Key learnings from this just transition success story - according to the TUC - were:
- The importance of trade unions being at the heart of the transition planning
- There are coordinated pathways into new jobs, including with external employers
- There was a long-term plan - and the planning started early
- There was a commitment to invest in skills training and paid time off
- Strong redundancy packages were offered
Our second FAQ question that came in is about… just transition. It is SUCH a good question - and we highly recommend you take a look at our response below and provide us with your own reflections.
If you’d like to be the third question we answer, please tell us your question here. You can stay anonymous.
And do join us at our next Be Human Rights Confident Collective - we thoroughly enjoyed our first and based on feedback received, we were not the only ones (luckily because that would be a bit odd). Join us by giving us your email address here.
Anna 💫
PS: Follow us on Linkedin to see the photo that made us happy this Friday
PPS: For those of you asking about the EU Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) saga. The European Commission “recognises that three months ahead of the intended implementation date, several global partners have repeatedly expressed concerns about their state of preparedness …” Enter the proposal for a 12-month additional time to phase in the EUDR. If approved by the European Parliament and the Council, the EUDR application date would be extended from 30 December 2024 to 30 December 2025 for large companies and from 30 June 2025 to 30 June 2026 for micro-and small enterprises. At the same time, the European Commission published new guidance materials for the EUDR here. So not a time to rest on one’s laurels.
