Picture: Flickr Creative Commons/Lucas

The electronic giant Hewlett-Packard has announced ambitious aims to change the company's supply chain's recruitment practices in order to mitigate human rights risks related to migrant workers.

In HP's new 'Supply Chain Foreign Migrant Worker Standard', the company prohibits the use of recruitment agencies when hiring foreign migrant workers. The new standards require suppliers to recruit migrant workers directly under suppliers' own payroll.

Furthermore, HP instructs that all workers must get written contracts in their native language prior to leaving their home country. HP's supplier or supplier's recruitment agency may not, in any circumstances, confiscate passports or other personal documents of migrant workers.

Moreover, through the new responsibility standards, HP prohibits recruitment fees taken from migrant workers. Suppliers must make sure that no fees or other payments for the work placement are charged from migrant workers at any stage of the recruitment process.

HP operates in several Asian countries, such as Malaysia and Thailand, where migrant workers' human rights are violated frequently. Often migrant workers fall in debt burden due to recruitment fees and recruitment agencies are deducting substantial portions from their salaries. When an employer is debt bonded and his/her moving is restricted through confiscating the passport, we are talking about ILO's indicators for human trafficking and forced labour.

– HP's new initiative is a good example also for Finnish companies and their corporate responsibility initiatives. Many of the challenges in supply chains of Finnish companies are related to migrant workers' abuse, says the Executive Director of Finnwatch Sonja Vartiala.

Finnwatch's report published in September 2014 revealed that violations of migrant workers' rights in the supply chain of Neste Oil has lead to practices indicating human trafficking and forced labour. Also, the famous "pineapple case" is related to abusive behaviour against migrant workers.

– HP's initiative shows that problems in recruitment business have been acknowledged and that they can be tackled, says Vartiala.

In addition to individual companies, Finnwatch considers that also international certification organisations, such as the Business Social Compliance Initiative BSCI and palm oil industry's RSPO must act against the problems in Asia's recruitment business.

Tämä teos, jonka tekijä on Finnwatch, on lisensoitu Creative Commons Nimeä-EiKaupallinen-EiMuutoksia 4.0 Kansainvälinen -lisenssillä.