HP has become the first in the IT industry to require direct employment of foreign migrant workers in its supply chain. The objective of the new standard is to set forth the minimum requirements for the appropriate and ethical recruitment and management of foreign migrant workers by or on behalf of suppliers doing business with HP. Read more here.
“HP has one of the industry’s most extensive supply chains, spanning six continents, more than 45 countries and territories, and many cultures. Our efforts to support human, economic, and environmental progress goes far beyond our own walls; since 2007, our work to build suppliers’ capacity to address sustainability issues have directly reached over 460,000 people and established ongoing supplier- and peer educator-run programs, impacting a much larger number of workers …
“HP is committed to ensuring fair, safe and voluntary work for every worker in our supply chain. To further prevent exploitative labor practices and forced labor, HP became the first company in the IT industry to require direct employment of foreign migrant workers in its supply chain through the release of the HP Foreign Migrant Worker Standard. The industry-leading standard combines this direct employment requirement with rights relating to worker retention of passports and personal documentation and the elimination of worker-paid recruitment fees.
“The standard was developed in consultation with Verité, an international nonprofit that promotes safe, fair, and legal working conditions. Verité Chief Executive Officer Dan Viederman explained why the standard is vital to protecting foreign migrant workers, “Verité’s focused assessments and independent research confirm that workers who are employed by labor agents are more at risk of forced labor than those employed directly. HP’s standard requiring direct hiring will remove a key obstacle to ethical treatment of migrant workers. The standard sets a new bar and will likely result in substantial financial benefit to foreign migrant workers in HP’s supply chain, and we hope other companies will adopt similar policies.”
The standard builds on existing efforts to educate suppliers on best practices and is a part of HP’s Supplier Code of Conduct, which already expressly forbids any forced, bonded, indentured, involuntary prison labor, slavery or trafficking of persons. To ensure implementation of this standard, HP will complement its existing Supply Chain Responsibility program with specialized forced labor audits and regular monitoring. Suppliers that do not meet the standard will be required to correct their practices with urgency and may be subject to internal HP escalations, remediation programs and risk discontinuation of business with HP.”
Source: HP’s Global Citizenship Website http://www8.hp.com/us/en/hp-information/global-citizenship/index.html