From gig workers in the US, to workers on the backs of lorries in Singapore, the question of how to protect and safeguard rights for logistics and transport workers is an urgent and current one. Transport and logistics workers are often overlooked when it comes to corporate human and labor rights risks due to the nature and type of work that they do, despite the significant and growing importance of the sector and its workers to the global economy.
The logistics and transport sectors are the foundation upon which the global economy is built. In 2020, the global logistics market was worth $8.6bn. In Europe alone, around 10m people are employed in the logistics and transport sector. This is why, according to the World Economic Forum, transport and logistics workers are the key to delivering a people centred agenda.
The sector, which employs 450m people globally, includes seafarers, dockers, truckers, warehouse workers and last-mile delivery (gig) workers. When workers spend hours alone, or move through various jurisdictions, the standard points of contact to raise issues are missed.
The sector includes seafarers, dockers, truckers, warehouse workers and last-mile delivery workers
These workers are often on the move, working with temporary contracts and unstable employment conditions, which makes it difficult for them to access remedies when issues arise. Furthermore, they face unique challenges due to the nature of their occupations: warehouse workers monitored by AI, drivers that spend days alone on the road, or ship workers at sea for extended periods, with no access to Wi-Fi or telephone. Companies can struggle to know the reality of their supply chains.
Developments in human rights technology can bring a fundamental shift in protecting the rights of these workers, and providing them a voice, despite the specific challenges they face.
The Danger of a Global Race to the Bottom
There are fears of a “race to the bottom” when it comes to transport and logistics. The sector is rife with human rights scandals, including this one that engulfed Amazon at a factory in Saudi Arabia. This is not the kind of publicity that companies or governments want. There are real and significant business and reputational risks, whether its Lipton selling tea factories associated with abuse, or Nike facing increased investor scrutiny over responsible sourcing, what’s bad for people is now bad for business.
Conditions for drivers were particularly bad during the pandemic, even in wealthy nations. Dockworkers have been fighting for safer automation following failures at the Port of Auckland. 150,000 ship workers were forced to continue working without a contract during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Given the transient and dislocated nature of some of these jobs, the proliferation of AI-powered employee monitoring systems have created a new set of challenges for these workers to safeguard their employment rights. The aim of these tools is to drive efficiency, but due to the lack of safeguards in place, and the difficulty in designing effective safeguards, technology is creating a period where human rights risks in the sector are heightened.
AI-powered employee monitoring systems have created a new set of challenges for these workers to safeguard their employment rights
These risks include health and safety, unreasonable working conditions, passport withholding, withholding of wages, recruitment fees, forced overtime, forced labor and human trafficking, discrimination in the workplace, and restricted access to unions or collective bargaining. Due to the poor access to grievance mechanisms to ensure issues are brought to light and remedied, workers in this sector are particularly vulnerable to human and labor rights risks as technology and global risks drive sectoral upheaval.
Existing and New Regulations Create a Compliance Risk for Companies
Governments have attempted to put requirements in place that govern the fair treatment of these workers. In Europe, companies are obliged to follow strict rules for their logistics and transport workers that are specified by sector. There are EU rules on cabotage, posted workers and driver rest times.
Drivers in the EU must comply with an average weekly working time of 48 hours. Drivers cannot drive more than 56 hours per week, or 90 hours per fortnight, and require breaks every six hours. There is also the ILO Maritime Convention for workers at sea which the EU has largely transposed despite not being a member of the ILO.
A lot of the enacted and proposed global human rights legislations will require companies to identify, assess, and mitigate potential human rights risks for tier 1 suppliers, and beyond. From Australia to Mexico, governments are asking companies to assess risks for logistics and transport suppliers, such as forced labor involved in imported goods. This will create a significant compliance challenge for the logistics industry, and for those that deal with it, to develop ways to identify and mitigate these risks, and report on how they do so.
However, in many cases, the typical processes and mechanisms that companies use to identify human and labor rights risks don’t work for logistics and transport workers. This means there is very little to no direct feedback on risks and complaints for workers, which also means companies can’t easily identify where the risks are occurring in their supply chains, leaving them open to scandals, compliance or reputational risks.
Horses for Courses: Tailored Solutions for Transport and Logistics
Workers in the sector need to overcome specific obstacles to report human rights or labor issues, and companies need specific tools to reach them. They need a solution that is accessible and tailored to worker needs.
But companies may have a hard time engaging stakeholders on the ground, since they spend little time in a centralized location. Their working hours are atypical, seasonal, or they work for sub-contractors and are hidden, so there are less opportunities for face to face consultation, or to raise grievances. Suggestion box in the office? These workers may not go to the office. Weekly check-in with the supervisor? These workers are too busy driving 1,000s of kilometers, or sailing the ocean with no Wi-Fi, or telephone signal.
It’s difficult to monitor what’s really going on without digital assistance. The number of migrant workers in the sector emphasizes this lack of accessibility by compounding it with the language barrier. This is why there have been calls for regulations specifically for third-country drivers in the EU.
Empowering Workers is the Key to Reducing Risk
Like the UN, industry understands that workers have to be involved in risk reduction. That’s why the ITF worked with New Look to deliver a Memorandum of Understanding where New Look committed to conducting human rights due diligence (HRDD) for its full transport supply chain, and to promote access to collective bargaining.
Companies need to put processes in place to monitor and assess risks to meet their compliance and human rights commitments. But how can they do that when the sector is so fragmented, and workers themselves are hard to reach? Building relationships with suppliers is important, but they also need to be able to get standardised feedback from their workforce.
The most practical and effective way to make this work is through digital tools like Ulula.
Ulula’s digital surveys are accessible anywhere, anytime, even offline, on any device that logistics workers may use, and available in any language. This alone resolves many of the accessibility barriers that workers in this specific sector face.
These surveys are aligned with international indicators, facilitating feedback for companies on all of the main risks outlined in OECD Due Diligence Guide for Responsible Business Conduct. Best of all, the surveys are affordable, and easy to roll out among the entire work force, even to isolated employees, no matter where they may be in the world.
To monitor, measure, and improve your due diligence policy, and build a compliant logistics sector that runs smoothly, get in touch.