The Coca-Cola Company, HP Inc., Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IKEA and Unilever today in London launch a new collaboration, the Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment, focused on promoting ethical recruitment and combating the exploitation of migrant workers in global supply chains across industries.  The five founding companies have committed to the ‘Employer Pays Principle’, which states that no worker should pay for a job - the costs of recruitment should be borne not by the worker but by the employer.

For many people around the world, the search to earn a better living leads them to find work away from home. The promise of higher wages abroad, however, can in some cases result in exploitation, with many low-skilled workers in particular paying high recruitment fees, incurring large debts, and potentially finding themselves in situations of forced labour.

The Leadership Group, supported by IHRB, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, International Organization for Migration and Verite, will be championing the ‘Employer Pays Principle’ within their own industries and beyond, calling for similar commitments from other companies to drive positive change across all sectors.

The Leadership Group will also work together over the coming months to develop a practical roadmap to underpin this call to action, a valuable tool for companies as they report under the UK Modern Slavery Act, California Transparency in Supply Chains Act and the US Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR).