UK Ministers Tell Retailers To Act Against Slave Labour

A Guardian investigation has revealed that prawns sold in the UK were produced using slave labour.   Jenny Willott, the consumer affairs minister, has warned that retailers must have a policy on sourcing products ethically, as disregarding consumers' concerns about forced labour and dangerous working conditions could risk forcing them out of business.   In the first ministerial intervention since the exposé two weeks ago, Willott ordered the British Retail Consortium (BRC) to produce new guidelines on urgent action that its members must take to improve transparency regarding human rights abuses linked to food, drink, clothing and other products.   Karen Bradley, home office minister for modern slavery, also called on firms to stop working with suppliers with links to forced labour, saying that they have a "social responsibility to ensure that those that they do business with are not involved in the exploitation of others".   The Guardian discovered that slaves involved in prawn production are being forced to work in Thailand for no pay for years at a time under threat of extreme violence. It found that prawns farmed with the help of slavery are sold in leading global supermarkets including Tesco, Walmart, Costco and Carrefour, among others. At the time, the UK retailers involved condemned slavery and human trafficking, but would not depart from pre-prepared statements.   © 2014 European Supermarket Magazine by Peter Donnelly To sign up to ESM’s weekly e-zine newsletter, send an email with the subject ‘Subscribe ESM news’ to peter@esmmagazine.com.