* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Sweeping child labour under the rug is no longer an option when we have data tools to fight them
It is a great time for the average industrial worker. For the first time, mobile technology is systematically revealing child labour in the factories that make our products. Deniability is no longer plausible because there’s publicly consumable data about issues in supply chains. Laws on the books that ban imports of goods made using child labour have existed for a while, but now they can be invoked. Worker reports on factory conditions can now be on the same level as credit reports—used as decision making tools for global business.
I know firsthand how important this is for workers. Growing up in an immigrant family in rural Mississippi, my mother worked in a local shirt factory before those jobs were outsourced to low-wage countries. Later, while working at the U.S. State Department, I was sent on a trade and labour rights delegation to South Asia in 2008. Back home, crowd-based rating tools such as Yelp were gaining popularity. At the same time, an entire generation of workers was connecting with each other via that magical device—the mobile phone. That led to the questions: can worker-sourced “dark data” be collected? More importantly, can it be collected in a way that benefits workers and protects them from retribution?
The key to making this approach work, as I would eventually learn, is creating value across the board. Multinational supply-chain managers can use the data to select the best suppliers. Factories can use it as a way to attract brands and workers. Changing the conversation from “here are the problems”, to “here is the value”, is what determines if and how this data is used. And that’s how we get to true worker freedom: giving them the ability to navigate the labour market and vote with their feet.
A few weeks ago, I visited Bangladesh as we began publicly releasing worker-reported statistics on child labour. Interestingly, industry associations and the International Labor Organization had affirmed that the sector was free of child labour the same week that we released our data. Industry associations and corporations were very surprised that so-called “sterling” and “award-winning” factories had reports of child labour. Factory management, in general, was eager to help ensure the accuracy of data—get more workers to give feedback, so that the data isn’t skewed by a few workers.
As more and more workers gain the confidence to report on factory conditions and breaches of laws, the unprecedented volume of data is what makes it compelling in a way that has never been possible before. Detecting child labour isn’t only about anecdotes anymore; we can tap into a living, breathing workforce who can not only alert us to issues, but also confirm that corrective action is indeed working. Sweeping child labour - and other worker issues - under the rug is no longer an option when we have data tools to fight them with.
Kohl Gill is the CEO and founder of LaborVoices.
