Modern Slavery: Investors’ Role in Addressing a Global Issue

23 September 2022
4 min read

Slavery was formally abolished in the US and Europe long ago. But forced labor, debt bondage, forced marriage, slavery and slavery-like practices, human trafficking, and the worst forms of child labor remain painful issues for the world. These covert activities are enabled by crime and corruption, and they’re a problem in developed as well as emerging countries.

Even a trip to the local grocery store can expose unaware consumers to modern slavery. It could arise through an action that seems as innocuous as purchasing seafood, which may have been gathered by fishers who spend an inordinate time at sea under inhumane conditions. Modern slavery might also touch consumers who visit the produce department to buy fresh fruit and other crops harvested by itinerant works subject to abuse.

Because it’s so insidious and difficult to root out, modern slavery is a growing challenge for businesses across industries. That makes it a global issue for the investors who channel capital to companies through their investment processes—an issue that demands concrete actions.

The Need for Engagement—and a Formalized Approach

In our view, reporting on modern slavery risks isn’t enough; investors should strive to reduce them through in-depth company research and active engagement with management teams. It’s the right thing to do, and it can ultimately drive better investment outcomes.

Direct dialogue with global supply-chain managers at companies that are current or potential investments offers a path to enhancing fundamental research and encouraging firms to evaluate modern slavery risks, including brand and reputation, litigation, employee strikes and supply-chain interruptions, and customer boycotts that may hurt financial performance.

Each company has unique relationships to modern slavery risk, but in our view it’s helpful for investors to evaluate these connections through a consistent lens, which can help prioritize companies based on their possible exposure to modern slavery. Four risk factors are key: vulnerable populations, high-risk geographies, high-risk products and services, and high-risk business models.

A Modern Slavery Assessment Framework

Using insights from these factors, investors can develop a consistent framework as a guide to assessing potential modern slavery exposure. For example, at AB we’ve developed a matrix that gauges the level of modern slavery exposure in each company’s business operations and supply chains (Display).

There’s an important distinction between a company’s potential exposure to modern slavery risk and how effectively it manages this issue. In practice, analysts plot each firm within the matrix to inform their research efforts. However, to illustrate generally how the matrix operates, we’ve assigned broader industries within the framework in the display.

Framework to Assess High-Risk-To-People Issuers
A grid that plots industries based on the level of modern-slavery risk to operations and supply chains

REITs: real estate investment trust
*Supply-chain risk can include customers and extend second- and even third-tier suppliers when the corporation's behavior contributes to modern slavery risks.
As of September 20,2021
Source: ACSI, company inteviews, company reports, industry research and AllianceBernstein(AB)

Industries with high exposure to modern slavery in both their business operations and supply chains fall in the upper right region, indicated by the purple shading. These would be the highest research and engagement priorities—though certainly not the only focus. Industries falling in the lower left region (the blue shading) would be lower priorities.

While the industry example demonstrates the general prioritization of research and engagement, assessing modern slavery risk must be a company-by-company exercise. Insights gleaned from fundamental research might put a company in a different part of the matrix from its peers, so investors can’t assume that a company’s mere presence in a low-risk industry defines it as low risk.

Digging Deeper: How Do Firms Stack Up on Best Practices?

If the matrix helps prioritize research and engagement efforts, where should those efforts lead investors? At AB, our primary objective is to understand how effective companies are at reducing modern slavery risk. By collaborating with certain firms, we’ve identified five criteria that can collectively serve as a best-practices benchmark:

  1.  Governance Framework
  2.  Risk Identification
  3.  Action Plan to Reduce Risks
  4.  Action Plan Effectiveness
  5.  Future Improvement

Not all the criteria apply to every company equally in all situations, but they help investors consider how firms might respond to modern slavery risk.

Building from our sector-agnostic framework, we’ve developed best-practices guides for a number of high-risk industries: fishing, apparel, technology, mining and finance. The risk to people in these industries varies, and so do best practices.

For example, the apparel industry depends on a large female labor force working in a factory that requires gender-specific policies. Wild fishing often depends on young, male migrant workers who spend extensive periods at sea, making it hard to monitor labor conditions. The financial sector plays a key role in detecting and disrupting modern slavery, given that the proceeds from these crimes flow through the financial system.

Ultimately, modern slavery best practices involve a continuous process of learning and improvement: firms typically progress from an initial laissez-faire attitude to the ultimate acceptance that modern slavery risk goes to the heart of what they stand for and must be addressed.

Where Do We Go from Here?

Near term, as investors continue to evaluate modern slavery risk in their portfolios and engage with companies, there should be an intense focus on expanding their knowledge bases and enhancing analytical capabilities as a path to more informed investment decisions and better reporting.

Over a longer time frame, scrutiny of modern slavery is likely to intensify, with the world becoming more aware and increasingly driven to action. We’re already seeing a wave of regulation related to modern slavery, human rights and supply-chain due diligence requirements. Popular activism could also have a broader impact on this issue, particularly in light of the widespread reach of social media and consumers’ growing power at the point of sale.

In fact, we believe that modern slavery could become a moral issue as galvanizing as climate change. Companies and investors are becoming more aware and gaining a better understanding that modern slavery threatens business sustainability. With the pace of the journey accelerating, investors who embrace the challenge will likely be the most successful.

The views expressed herein do not constitute research, investment advice or trade recommendations and do not necessarily represent the views of all AB portfolio-management teams. Views are subject to revision over time.


About the Author