Four of those firms respond to the concerns - among which Johnson Matthey refers to the fact that its North America business does have a specific policy on human trafficking and slavery.

The California Transparency in Supply Chains Act (SB-657) requires firms to publicly disclose the degree - if any - to which they are taking action on supply chain human trafficking and forced labour risks in five areas.  Those areas are verification, auditing and certification of direct suppliers; maintaining internal accountability standards; and internal training.

In a June 2014 blog post on the "KnowTheChain" coalition website, Ed Marcum of Humanity United highlighted the fact that 10 companies' statements, while compliant with the Act, state that they are not taking action in any of the five areas.  These companies, the post reads, "have openly chosen not to address the risk of slavery in their supply chains...demonstrat[ing] a lack of concern about the issue and the responsibility for even basic policies to procedures to assess, enforce or remedy trafficking issues." 

The ten firms are Caterpillar, Commercial Metals, Danaher Corp, Hyundai Motor America, IDEX Corporation, Johnson Matthey, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Manufactured Packaging Products, Overhill Farms and Valero Energy. 

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited the firms to respond to these concerns.  Caterpillar, Hyundai Motor America, Johnson Matthey and Valero Energy responded.  Their responses are available on this page - as well as a press release by us, and the blog post from the KnowtheChain website. In its response, Johnson Matthey pointed out that its North America business does have a specific policy on human trafficking and slavery.

If any of the other firms issues a response at a later date, we will include it alongside.