Eliminating modern slavery from projects

Modern slavery is not confined to forced labour camps in the Far East or indentured miners in Africa. People trafficking and criminal exploitation mean projects everywhere could be tainted, according to APM-sponsored research.

Every project manager ought to be familiar with the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (the MSA), which requires any company with a turnover of £36m or more to report on the measures it takes to prevent the use of slavery in its supply chain. Yet the problem remains profound. Reports from China over the past year show the mass internment of ethnic Uighurs in forced labour camps. In the Congo, minerals crucial to the production of smartphones are routinely mined using slaves, including children. And in the UK, gangmasters are still supplying indentured labourers to construction projects.

Integrating slavery reporting

According to International Labour Organization (ILO) figures cited in the APM Research Fund-sponsored report Eliminating Modern Slavery from Projects, which has brought together researchers from the University of Warwick, the University of Leeds and University College London, there are 24 million victims of forced labour at any one time around the world, with construction accounting for 18 per cent. Globalisation, supply-chain complexity, informal employment practices and difficulties identifying the various types of modern slavery all contribute to its prevalence.

While the MSA has made UK businesses more alert to slavery within their supply chains – leading to a more mature approach to ethical procurement and the rise of supply-chain monitoring platforms such as Sedex – the new report makes clear that more could be done to integrate monitoring and prevention into routine project practices.

The ILO emphasises developing clear policies on forced labour; training auditors and compliance officers; and monitoring suppliers, subcontractors and contract agencies. But as the report stresses, because projects are by definition temporary organisations, the burden of ensuring compliance in material and labour flows is more challenging. In transnational projects and joint ventures, the risks are even greater.

Doing the right thing

Project managers are advised to turn to the professional bodies relevant to their projects – such as RIBA, RICS, CIPS and APM – for help in identifying potential problem areas and applying sector- or activity-specific initiatives to eliminate slavery. Research among project managers conducted for the report also identified several approaches that might be applied within project management methodologies. Potential interventions were identified at different levels, from legislation through to individual behaviours.

Many of the recommendations simply reinforce existing standards that ought to be a hallmark of professional project management, particularly in the chartered era. Competence and self-confidence in both performance and applying codes of conduct are central to identifying and addressing evidence of modern slavery.

There is still a reliance on organisations having standard approaches that give individual project participants guidance on (or mandate) actions for when they encounter modern slavery. Codes of conduct, training and clear pathways to escalate violations are all critical, the report notes – and a culture that prizes ‘doing the right thing’ over any other objective (particularly cutting costs) is essential.

Promoting awareness

At the sector level, agreed standards and shared information to help identify instances of modern slavery should be backed by awareness campaigns and pre-qualification questionnaires to root out issues in supply chains. And those industry and professional bodies, says the report, are an obvious vector for both awareness and standards enforcement.

The report recommends the further enhancement of standards and frameworks for addressing structural contributors to modern slavery, improved multi-stakeholder initiatives, the better communication of standards and expectations, and a review of project procurement and contractor monitoring. Slavery can often lurk deep in supply chains. Embedding vigilance into project processes is the surest way to root it out.

Professionalism is the key

The APM Research Fund report is full of detail on the causes and implications of modern slavery, and potential remedies. But the overriding conclusion is that addressing this menace comes down to individual responsibility and the application of professionalism.

“Competence is engendered through having an appropriate framework of standards and processes and being trained in how to use them,” the report says. “Confidence arises when an individual is not afraid of jeopardising their own career or safety by speaking out and does not fear making the situation worse by acting.”

In that sense, the report is timely. At the end of a year when COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter have placed an emphasis on individual action to combat wider ills, project managers equipped with strong professional values and backed by a clear organisational culture can be instrumental in stamping out modern slavery in project supply chains.

The APM-sponsored report Eliminating Modern Slavery from Projects can be found at apm.org.uk/resources/research