The Quest to End Modern Slavery: Metaphors in corporate modern slavery statements

Ilse Ras,Christiana Gregoriou

doi:10.14197/atr.201219137

Abstract

This paper focuses on the modern slavery statements of three major UK high street retailers who are known for their relatively pro-active approach to the debate on corporate responsibility for ethical trading. Drawing on our earlier research in relation to metaphors in British newspaper reporting of modern slavery and human trafficking since 2000, we explore the metaphors that recur across the statements these companies have published in 2016, 2017 and 2018. These statements were published in accordance with the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, which requires all commercial organisations operating in the UK, with a turnover greater than GBP 36 million, to publish an annual statement outlining the work done to assess and address (the risk of) modern slavery in their supply chains. We find that the metaphors used in these statements generally fail to acknowledge the agency of those workers affected by modern slavery and labour exploitation in a broader sense, the potential complicity of the retailers in sustaining an exploitative industry, and the underlying socio-economic factors that leave workers vulnerable to exploitation. We conclude that more needs to be done to account for the causes of modern slavery so that retailers can prevent rather than react to it.

Highlights

The case for examining representations of modern slavery[1] may, be assumed to have been made.[2]
These statements were published in accordance with the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, which requires all commercial organisations operating in the UK, with a turnover greater than GBP 36 million, to publish an annual statement outlining the work done to assess and address modern slavery in their supply chains
The three UK high street retailers whose statements we examined have a history of engagement with debates and reporting practices on modern slavery in supply chains: they are Marks & Spencer (M&S); the John Lewis Partnership (JLP), which includes Waitrose, and Mothercare

Summary

Introduction

The case for examining representations of modern slavery[1] may, be assumed to have been made (and eloquently so).[2]. All documents under scrutiny refer to ‘reasonable’, ‘immediate’, ‘’ or ‘further’ ‘steps’ that need taking to prevent modern slavery in company supply chains, with John Lewis wanting to ‘drive’ change These commercial retailers are further ‘guided’ by some of the Home Office and civil society publications released before and between the publication of the MSSs. The metaphor of the journey is present in the Home Office guidance, and much more frequent than the metaphor of violence/war, with ‘step*’ occurring with a cumulative frequency of 78, compared to the 33 of ‘tackl*’. As such it should be a zone of political contestation.[42]

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion