Reflections from the 2021 Global Forum for Responsible Recruitment

Opening Plenary: Global Progress Towards Fair, Ethical and Responsible Recruitment

Guna Subramaniam, South East Asia Regional Advisor, IHRB

Thanks everyone for joining the Opening Plenary of GFRR 2021. Guna Subramaniam here from IHRB, playing the role of Rapporteur. Pleased to share some of the key takeaways from the discussion. 

The Pandemic 

• The Pandemic has intensified pre-existing risks and migrant workers are among the most vulnerable. 
• Recruitment must be performed in a way that mitigates risks and exposure to COVID-19. 
• We need to double our efforts to ensure women migrant workers (42%) receive fair and ethical recruitment and employment, as they can become invisible due to the jobs they do. They are often frontline workers.- Rae Lindsay (IHRB) 
• Call for a justice mechanism for migrant workers. For more @mfasia_ 

The Need for Collaboration

• "Without coordination, we will not succeed”- António Vitorino (IOM) 
• We must acknowledge the complexity of the challenge involving various stakeholders in the recruitment process. No one actor can take this on their own. When we have a harmonised response we can change systems, processes, increase accountability, and impact how the market works. 
• The Leadership Group with 15 international brands, making the commitment to the Employer Pays Principle, is an attempt at leveraging collaborative change. 

Respect and dignity 

• "The respect we accord to migrant workers and the dignity of their work reflects on us as a society" - Guy Ryder (ILO) 
• "... the beginning of decent work is fair and ethical recruitment"-  António Vitorino (IOM) 
• We must be persistent to achieve ethical recruitment and creative about the solutions that will put migrant workers at the centre of the lens. 

Changing the Narrative, Perceptions of Migrant Workers 

• We need to acknowledge the positive contribution migrant workers make to the economy globally. 
• And also how they support sustainable development through remittances they send back to their home countries. 
• We need to consider how we can increase equality for migrant workers and through their role in economic development.

Fair Recruitment: Benefits for All

Laura Greene, ILO Global Business Network on Forced Labour

Hello everyone, I'm Laura Greene and I coordinate the ILO's Global Business Network on Forced Labour. In my role as rapporteur for the session on Fair Recruitment: Benefits for All, I have a few takeaways for you. The key question of the session was how to maximize the benefits for all and our panellists shared the following insights: 

1. Fair recruitment challenges are systemic in nature. Understanding the ecosystem is the best place to start in unpacking the problem, which should include working with the rights holders. To do this we need all stakeholders. Governments, workers and employers all have important roles to play in promoting fair recruitment. 

2. Countries need to recognize the challenges they face and strengthen their collaboration with stakeholders, including international organizations who can provide a valuable opportunity for inter-country learning. Ensuring a functioning labour market, creating a framework that ensures work is undertaken voluntarily, and supporting workers through adequate social protection are some of the important steps to take. 

3. Workers benefit from greater awareness particularly through pre-departure training and access to technology. Ensuring adequate access to information empowers workers to seek assistance for rights violations. Certain tools such as the Migrant Recruitment Advisor already exist to support workers in sharing information and experiences. 

4. Employers and recruitment agencies benefit from a level playing field. Policies that are fit for purpose and enforced are crucial. Employers and recruitment agencies can be part of the solution by engaging each other and creating awareness to promote fair recruitment. 

Improving Regulation at All Levels to Drive Progress

Lisa Wong, ILO

I had the honour of being asked to serve as Rapporteur for the GFRR session on Regulation at All Levels to Drive Progress.  My three key takeaways are listed below:

1. Laws and regulations are important to ensuring responsible recruitment, but without monitoring and enforcement mechanisms in place, migrant workers still run the risk of being exploited and abused both during and after the recruitment process. It is important that these two steps are not forgotten. 

2.  Every stakeholder – including governments, trade unions, employers, private recruitment agencies, and civil society, among others – have a key role to play in ensuring that migrant workers are aware of their rights, and that these rights are not infringed. There is need for a common framework and a united approach if this goal is to be achieved. 

3. The ratification and effective implementation of ILO Convention 181 on Private Recruitment Agencies is key to ensuring worker protection and fair and ethical recruitment. Decent work is at the heart of this Convention and when implementing its provisions, we must all recall that labour is not a commodity – regardless of whether this labour is found in countries of origin or in countries of destination. 

Fair Recruitment in Agriculture

Georgina Vazquez De Los Reyes, ILO

I participated as Rapporteur for the session on Fair Recruitment in Agriculture on Monday, April 12th. I would like to share key points made by all of our amazing panellists:   

Tatiana Esposito: Italy recently adopted a “National Action Plan to prevent and tackle labour exploitation, illegal recruitment and forced labour in agriculture”– including through improving the effectiveness and transparency of labour intermediation in agriculture. The National Action Plan takes the important step of situating fair recruitment within a broader context   

Luz Maria Chombo: AHIFORES started when a group of employer's got together to assess the overall state level of compliance in agriculture and looking to improve conditions, including SMEs. The group developed a Code of Conduct along with two certifications that now serve as the basis of compliance among their members. The Code and the certifications include the promotion of fair recruitment and prevention of forced labor, among other labor standards. With the ILO and Verité we developed the Fair Recrutiment Toolkit that is looking to improve and train labor intermediaries.   

Joe Martinez from CIERTO: Fair recruitment is not only a good social cause, but it is a profitable business model. Our approach from the beginning has been to engage all members of the supply chain while we also protect workers from paying to access a job. There is a lot of advancement within certain parts of the chain, but the challenge remains in generating an ecosystem for ethical recruitment that engages and involves all actors in countries of origin and destination.   

Baldemar Velasquez FLOC is a union engaged in organizing farm workers in the US regardless of their status, and also has an active campaign to address abuse by labour contractors under the H2A “guestworker program". There is a lot of inequities built into guestworker programs and FLOC has worked to eliminate those, including freedom of association and collective bargaining. 

Access to Justice: Resolving Recruitment-Related Grievances

Gaela Roudy Fraser, ILO

It was a pleasure to serve as Rapporteur for the recently concluded session on Access to Justice. My three key takeaways are listed below. Please comment or add your reactions to highlight your own takeaways from the session. We look forward to your thoughts! 

1. Barriers to access to justice are often similar across regions, and are particularly high for women migrant workers. Practical approaches, such as seeking compensation for excessive fees charged at country of origin while working at destination and using locally available support structures at destination can help workers prevent debt accumulation. It is critical for workers to be able sustain income revenue during legal procedures. 

2. Trade unions provide critical support to workers both before departure, by facilitating access to information on rights and procedures in case of complaints, and by accompanying workers at destination through the complexities of the remedial mechanisms, helping to maintain trust and to complete processes that can be long and distressing for migrant workers. 

3. Agreements between sending and destination countries are important avenues to prevent abuses and strengthen access to justice and remedies. Because informality breeds vulnerability, solutions also need to address systemic issues, such as matching visa requirements for migrant workers with the nature the labour market, where “flexible” labour is in high demand. The recruitment industry would also benefit from rethinking their business model in order to sustain business whilst meeting the needs of both customers and workers in compliance with the regulatory system. Transparent documentation between sending and receiving legal entities are central to a healthier ecosystem, with clear lines of accountability and responsibility of employers and recruiters towards each other and towards workers.  

Improving Enforcement of Regulation at All Levels to Drive Progress

Mattias Carlson from IOM

I'm Mattias Carlson from IOM and I have the honor to report from the session about Improving Enforcement of Regulation at All Levels to Drive Progress. Below I am going to list a few key takeaways from the session. 

1. Licensing was noted as a factor to drive ethical practices among labour recruiters and labour providers. By requiring actors to obtain licenses, national enforcement authorities add a layer of scrutiny over recruiters by requiring them to prove that they are in fact, following legislative framework and ethical standards.

2. Another key takeaway mentioned by panelists was international cooperation between enforcement agencies. By working in close partnerships, these agencies will be able to inform best practices and establish common standard approaches on how to address irregularities. This will help to increase protection and transparency in international cross-border recruitment.

3. A final takeaway was that in order to encourage workers who are in distress to come forward and report on issues, a firewall should be created between immigration enforcement and labour enforcement cases. By separating the two, migrant workers would be less worried about the potential consequences of making their case in front of the authorities, and it would also take away leverage often used by unscrupulous employers against migrant workers.  

Promoting Engagement in the Apparel Industry

Julia Batho, IHRB

Hello everyone. I’m Julia Batho from IHRB and today I had the honour to serve as rapporteur for the session on Promoting Engagement in the Apparel Industry. I have a few takeaways from the session: 

1. Supporting diverse actors in the community both in countries of origin and in destination countries is crucial for implementation of responsible recruitment. However, monitoring the full migration journey from origin to destination remains a key challenge. Lack of transparency and limited information in countries of origin, especially at the village level, are some of the challenges that need to be overcome to ensure an effective monitoring of the full migration process.

2. Communication and transparency between workers and employers are essential. Strengthened communication and transparency contributes to the creation of long-standing relationships, which in turns contribute to trust building and enhanced protection for workers.

3. Realising women migrant’ rights and opportunities requires a holistic, tailored approach. Gender-responsive measures include promoting employment opportunities for male family members in the destination country, tailored health & safety training and providing accommodation that takes into account the specific needs of women, including adequate sanitation and hygiene measures. 

Business Actions to Drive Change in Recruitment Practices

Bonny Ling, Research Fellow, IHRB

Hello, I'm Bonny Ling, IHRB Research Fellow. It was wonderful to meet many of you at the session on Business Actions to Drive Change in Recruitment Practices, Day 2 of the GFRR. I write down my three take-aways below. Given the diversity of our experiences, these points are likely to differ from yours. I am very interested to hear of your thoughts and see how we can deepen our discussions. 

(1) Importance of worker voices in driving change to recruitment practices. This was the common theme across all the business presentations, underscoring the importance of enterprises creating an environment where workers feel comfortable to express their views and having conduits to feed these views to top management, as in the case of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. G’s Fresh spoke of capacity building, with awareness training on modern slavery risks for workers in parallel with recruitment costs mapping. Worker engagement is foundational for changes to recruitment practices. Trade unions certainly play an important role, as many in breakout sessions had raised. It is worth pointing out that there are many contexts where union activities are limited and where migrant workers may have reservations about taking part. 

(2) Technical challenges associated with responsible recruitment. Many questions remain on the technicalities of responsible recruitment, pointing to the urgent need for lesson sharing. How does an enterprise remedy recruitment fees? Is this split with the supplier or is the cost pushed down the supply chain? What is meant by the totality of ‘recruitment fees’ reimbursed – are these service fees in the country of destination? Do they include fees for medical exams, pre-departure orientation, amongst other costs? What are all the operational components when an enterprise maximises its control over recruitment streams? When Tesco speaks of expanding its programme tackling recruitment fees to other high-risk regions, what are the challenges of replicability? In essence, this is a signpost to the Session on the Repayment of Recruitment Fees to Migrant Workers on Day 3. 

(3) Leap of business will. This was not specifically addressed in the session, since the four brands are already industry movers with respect to responsible recruitment. Nonetheless, it struck me, what it takes for enterprises to embark on responsible recruitment, especially when dealing with ‘first-mover disadvantage’ in regulatory environments where recruitment fees are permitted and reforms look unlikely in the short term. In essence, it is a variation of the same question about how we can begin to operationalise UNGP 15, with all the parts of a human rights policy commitment, human rights due diligence and processes to enable remediation. I hear all too often, amidst established labour recruiters, that systematic, regional reform on labour migration is not possible. That the push for ethical recruitment will pass.  For my final take-away, it is simply this refrain, full credit to Henriette McCool of VINCI in the context of implementing responsible recruitment in the Bangladesh-Qatar corridor:  “Where there is a will, there is a way.”

Hospitality: Fostering Engagement to Ensure Sectoral Change

Sarah Bekkali, Gulf Regional Co-ordinator, IHRB

Hi Everyone, I am Sarah Bekkali, Gulf Regional Co-ordinator at the IHRB. As a rapporteur for this session, I can confidently state that the panellists leading discussions in this session invited us participants to consider effective ways to think about workers welfare in the hospitality sector and beyond, and which efforts need to be made to sustain ethical growth. The panellists allowed us to reimagine new collaborative practices in the hospitality sector in the Gulf and beyond. I would like to leave you with the following thoughts inspired by today's session:    

1) Constructive collaboration and cooperation to advance migrant workers’ rights have proven possible in Qatar, says Ambert Yuson. According to Alix Nasri, learnings obtained, and successes observed through these collaborative efforts to improve workers’ rights within the construction industry have the potential to be replicated elsewhere. This then warrants questions about how these collaborative efforts tested in the construction industry will materialize in the hospitality sector, and beyond, not only in Qatar, but in the wider Gulf region as well. As Alix noted, many of the hotels currently engaging on topics related to workers welfare within established working groups in Qatar are brands with a global presence. This alludes to some promising future opportunities to address and harmonise best practice strategies both regionally and globally.  

2) The current pandemic has shown that new paradigms are necessary to build the hospitality sector of tomorrow. It is therefore encouraging to hear Shaikha Al-Khater say that the labour reforms aim to be inclusive to ensure no person nor industry is left behind. Though great strides have been made in Qatar, the panellists agree that there is still room for growth to ensure effective implementation and workers empowerment.    

3) Mahmoud Qutub recognised the opportunity the World Cup brings to Qatar, to not only host a once in a lifetime event, but more importantly, to transform and tackle issues hindering ethical recruitment, improving migrant workers’ rights and ensure effective implementation of promises made.     

Today's changes and developments mark a huge turning point, and drive us to question: how will we continue implementing visionary ideas to improve the lives of millions of migrant workers in the Gulf and beyond? Time and our joint efforts will tell.   

It has been exciting to hear more about the progress made, and all that is promised to come. What is your workers’ rights vision for the hospitality industry? Do share your thoughts with us.    

Preventing Grievances: Building Back Better through Robust Wage Protection Systems

Sophia Kagan, ILO

Hello, I'm Sophia Kagan, FAIRWAY Programme Manager with the ILO. Great to connect with many of you during the session on Preventing Grievances: Building Back Better Through Robust Wage Protection Systems on this, Day 3 of the GFRR.  Here are my take-away messages from the meeting. 

(1) Moving to digital payment can be a way to promote transparency, improve efficiencies and productivity, and even increase revenue for business, according to @Matthias Thorns, IOE. Already many Gulf countries including Qatar have implemented a requirement for migrant workers to be paid digitally (though not migrant domestic workers), in systems which can automatically detect non-payment. According to @Mahmood Abdulla Al-Siddiqi, Qatar Government, already 94% of companies are registered under the WPS in that country. But many complementary steps need to be considered to ensure that a move to digital payment is successful. Improving financial literacy of workers, ensuring that there are accessible cash machines, supporting data protection and building capacity of SMEs to provide digital payment are just some of the priorities to be considered.   

(2) Inclusive consultation is critical in designing recruitment and employment systems that genuinely protect workers’ wages. @Mahmood Abdulla Al-Siddiqi, Qatar Government, noted that Qatar’s Visa Centres, established in 2018 and now operating in 6 countries, were developed with engagement and through consultation with local stakeholders (including government of origin and civil society). QVCs reduce risk of contract substitution (workers sign a digital contract before departure, which is recognized in Qatar); and also minimize risk of informal recruitment (by linking issuance of visas to recruitment by registered recruitment agencies). Promoting national dialogue at the country of destination level - including with workers' and employers' organizations, is also important to ensuring workers' rights. 

(3) Non-payment of wages is not acceptable. According to @Ryszard Cholewinski, ILO, already migrant workers, particularly migrant domestic workers, receive wages well below those of national workers, even when controlling for education and skill level (as documented in a recent ILO research). @Ellene Sana, Center for Migrant Advocacy notes that since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, civil society and trade unions collaborating under Justice for Wage Theft campaign have documented more than a thousand cases of non-payment of workers from five Asian countries of origin. Especially vulnerable are migrant domestic workers - whose employers may claim inability to pay  due to job losses by household members. But, while everyone is suffering due to COVID-19, it should not be vulnerable migrant workers that bear the brunt of the economic crisis. They must be paid their owed dues.  More information on documentation by Migrant Forum in Asia can be found here. 

What do you think are the urgent priorities for ensuring that migrants are paid correctly, on time, and fairly? #buildbackbetter #GFRR2021

Repayment of Recruitment Fees to Migrant Workers

Hannah Newcomb, Managing Director, Responsible Recruitment Toolkit

Hello everyone. I’m Hannah Newcomb, Managing Director of Responsible Recruitment Toolkit and I had the pleasure of serving as rapporteur from the recent session on Repayment of Recruitment Fees to Migrant Workers with Adrian Pereira, Rosey Hurst, David Pettet and John Morrison. Here are my top four takeaways from a fantastic discussion:

1) There is broad consensus that repayment of recruitment fees is an important driver of change. When companies have to repay large sums of recruitment fees, this focusses attention at a Board-level in addressing the root causes, which longer term can support driving the effective systems needed to avoid fee-charging happening in the first place.  

2) Leverage and collaboration are key factors in ensuring successful repayment whether its peers working together to leverage consensus for repayment, or involving independent experts and civil society to mediate between parties.   

3) Repayment is not happening quickly enough – it can often take months to agree repayment amounts and then even longer for workers to be fully reimbursed where repayments are spread over months to make them more manageable for companies. The panel discussed the role of the finance sector in providing loans so that companies can repay banks over time rather than the workers, who could receive their repayments quickly.   

4) Repayment is part of the solution, but does not absolve companies of their UNGP responsibilities in relation to remedying other harms experienced by migrant workers, such as discrimination, harassment and poor accommodation. It is also a market-based solution, and effective legislation and good governance are also needed to drive systemic change, as well as effective anti-corruption measures. We are yet to see the impact of supply chain due diligence/liability legislation but what has undoubtedly had an impact is import ban legislation such as the US Withhold Release Orders.  This is the first time there has been a session at the Global Forum dedicated to repayment of recruitment fees and it was great to hear John Morrison commit to keeping this important topic on the agenda in future events. 

Organising and the Representation of Migrant Workers to Ensure Fair Recruitment

Ira Rachmawati, ITUC

Hi everyone, I am Ira Rachmawati from the ITUC - Human & Trade Union Rights dept. Since day 1 #GFRR2021 Freedom of Association for migrant workers has been emphasied as core needs to ensure fair recruitment for decent work. The session on Organising & Representation of workers to ensure fair recruitment has exactly all the information on how migrant workers joining unions are the way out to prevent the exploitation in their recruitment process as it only build migrant workers collective power. Below are my key takeaways from the session and I am happy to see your sharing of reflections here too.

1. Fair recruitment and fair migration are a trade union issue and trade unions have a key role to play by taking the lead in promoting a rights-based approached to labour migration and hence promote, contribute, monitor and advocate for fair recruitment. Above all, trade union organising efforts and increasing the representation of migrant workers, without a doubt are the most important aspects to ensure fair recruitment for decent work for all. 

2. Global solidarity and cooperation among unions in origin and destination countries remain fundamental in building migrant workers collective power to protect their rights. While building trust by providing "second home" for migrant workers in destination countries, unions organising migrant workers means strengthening trade unions organisation. 

3. Through organising migrant workers, unions are also playing the monitoring role of the recruitment process that enable unions to better identify the challenges and gaps in order to deliver services to workers and to document cases of abuses, which can then serve as an advocacy tool to influence the policy dialogue (including by providing a tool for migrant workers to rate the recruitment agencies www.recruitmentadvisor.org) .

What’s your key takeaway from this session? To watch the session in case you missed it, check here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOSBU961p_w

A Holistic Approach to Migrant Empowerment and Protection

Isobel Archer, BHRRC

Thank you to IHRB for inviting me to participate as ‘rapporteur’ for this last session - “A holistic approach to migrant empowerment and protection” - and to all speakers for their expert interventions! My main takeaways from this morning:

1. Response to the issues of unethical recruitment must be worker-centric. Government approaches are frequently top-down, inadequate and inappropriate. CSOs acting as intermediaries between top-level policies and workers themselves enable bottom-up decision-making through worker networks so that policy recommendations are grounded in identified worker needs.

2. Taking into account the complexities of the recruitment process and that multiple parties are involved in facilitating global migration, a holistic approach must be embedded in a multi-stakeholder model to convene workers, worker-support organisations, CSOs & governments in both sending and destination countries

3. Flexibility is a key feature of a holistic approach to worker empowerment, while recognizing that there is no one-size fits all solution. The pandemic has highlighted the need to switch gear and redirect resources and funding to where it is needed most, ensuring practical and responsive solutions that address the challenges workers and worker-support organisations are experiencing in real-time.

Promoting Fair Recruitment for Migrant Care Workers

Anna Olsen, ILO

Hi, I hope some of you also had the chance to attend the session earlier today on Promoting Fair Recruitment for Migrant Care Workers. I’m Anna Olsen, and I work for the ILO’s Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific. I wanted to reflect on some of the key messages I heard during the session and why the protection of migrant care workers is so crucial as we shape fair recruitment in the post-pandemic context.

Firstly, and as clearly expressed by support for this question in the chat box, there is a critical need to raise the value of care work. Care work – be it nursing, aged care, domestic work or child care – is shaped by the society in which it exists and has been historically undervalued because it has been considered traditionally unpaid ‘women’s work. The essential nature of care work during the COVID-19 pandemic gives us the opportunity to reframe the value of these services, given how important the role of migrant care workers especially has been in responding to the health crisis. The speaker representing ADECCO spoke of the demand for care workers in some key destinations and the vital need to ensure they are kept safe from transmission risk while providing healthcare support for others. The support for occupational health and safety standards for all care workers, including migrants, was clearly heard. 

However, and secondly, attendees and panelists reflected on the conflict that is created when ‘brain drain’ draws away care workers from their home communities in times of need. 85% of those who responded to the poll during the session suggested that the risk of skills loss from communities of origin was not adequately dealt with in regulation of recruitment and a further 91% suggested that sector-specific recruitment regulation was required to protect care workers. There was also considerable discussion on how the skills of care workers are recognized and the sector can be professionalized, but this will have to also be balanced with avoiding deskilling of migrant workers who move to often better paid, but lower skilled, roles in the destinations. 

But my final and perhaps most personal take away was the reflection that at some stage in our lives, we ALL have needed or will need to be cared for by another. The dignity of those providing that care should be all of our concerns. Fany Raquel Galeas Sanchez, the speaker from the trade union, stated that the first and most important step will be to recognize care work as work, including through the ratification of the ILO’s Convention on Domestic Work (No. 189) and I agree. All speakers discussed the need for political will to make this shift – my question to you all is what we can do to demand this will from our representatives and finally deliver decent work conditions to care workers. 

Strengthening Coherence Amongst Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives to Promote Responsible Recruitment

Mustafa Qadri, Equidem; Research Fellow, IHRB

Hello everyone! This is Mustafa Qadri from Equidem. I’m the rapporteur for the session “Strengthening Coherence Amongst Social Sustainability Initiatives to Promote Ethical Recruitment” held today between 11:30 to 12:30. The panellists were Sharon Vaxman from the Fair Labor Association, Rochelle Zaid from Social Accountability International, Rachel Rigby from the Rainforest Alliance, and Rona Starr from the Association of Professional Social Compliance Auditors, with excellent moderating from Kendra Rinas of IOM.  As someone who spends a lot of time investigating migrant worker recruitment-related exploitation and advising a range of stakeholders on how to remedy it, I found the discussion particularly useful. It was very helpful that the speakers gave several concrete examples of both challenges and, critically, successful initiatives. Here are some of my takeaways from the panel. 

1. To respect migrant worker rights in the recruitment process requires collaborative approaches. This was a common theme during the discussion beginning with the interesting common themes emerging from the audience question at the start of the event: “What does migrant worker voice means in mutli-stakeholder initiatives audience was asked?” The key words that emerged from the audience included: empowerment, meaningful consultation, inclusion and diversity, design participation, need for support. Each of the speakers emphasised the importance of collaborative approaches and multi-stakeholder initiatives that include workers as well as the full range of business actors, state authorities, civil society and communities. 

2. Mapping your supply chain and value chain is key. Workers supplied by recruitment agencies and “labour suppliers” are particularly at risk of exploitation in the recruitment process. To address this requires an understanding of where the women and men at greatest risk of recruitment exploitation are in the chain, and also identifying areas of risk in your business activities. It also helps you to identify potential partners to address recruitment grievances, including where appropriate contractors, and recruitment agents themselves. Understand the demographics and wider social profile of your workforce. Go deeper into the recruitment agencies and intermediaries involved in the recruitment process. The key issue is to expand the requirements of responsible recruitment standards across the supply chain. 

3. Although there is a shift to responsible recruitment, it is an emerging area of expertise. But already many concrete solutions and important milestones have been reached. It is important not to “reinvent the wheel” with recruitment due diligence processes, for example, as many publicly available templates for contracts, due diligence and aspects of a responsible recruitment system are readily available. But we need to be honest about the challenges, and there may be variances from context to context. The speakers gave a number of concrete examples of how they have tried to address recruitment grievances and prevent them from happening again. Given all this, those responsible for monitoring compliance with responsible recruitment standards need to receive appropriate training, support and continued professional education opportunities. Certification systems are also important, but need skilled and experienced professionals to maximise their effectiveness. 

If there was one overarching conclusion from the discussion it was that there is no single solution to remedying and preventing recruitment exploitation. To address it requires effective and ongoing collaboration that involves putting workers and their voices at the heart of the responsible recruitment process. Many thanks to all of the panellists for an engaging, practical and useful session!  

Closing Plenary: Reflections on Progress Towards Fair, Ethical and Responsible Recruitment

David Schilling, ICCR

I'm David Schilling, Senior Program Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility and have the honor of being the rapporteur for the final plenary: Reflections on Progress toward Fair, Ethical, and Responsible Recruitment.  John Morrison moderated an excellent panel including Christian Frutiger, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; Sharan Burrow, ITUC; Roberto Suarez Santos, IOE; and William Gois, MFA.  It was a reach discussion where different perspectives were offered and general alignment of basic points.

1. One poll taken during the conference indicated that 79% of those surveyed said progress is being made on responsible recruitment but more needs to be done.  There are important initiatives driven by different stakeholders which have elevated the need for fair, just, recruitment of migrant workers, but there are still silos to be broken down, too much work done within 'bubbles' that impede progress.  One panelist said, "We must overcome silo thinking and build together a viable eco-system for responsible recruitment." To do so, there is a strong need to hear directly from migrant workers themselves, not just in the Global Forum but in the work at all levels to create a just eco-system that takes into account the full range of exploitation and stigmatization of migrant workers.

2. Covid-19 has been a disaster for so many migrant workers who lost their jobs and repatriated to their home country, still strapped with recruitment debt, and not having been paid back wages nor receiving severance. In order to "build back better" workers need an accessible mechanism to process their claims.  Governments, companies, international institutions build an international claims commission (as proposed by MFA) to provide remedy as part of setting a strong signal to "build forward better."

3. Though Covid-19 has had devastating impacts, it provides clarity of how important equitable and resilient systems are to workers, suppliers, companies, trade unions, civil society and governments.  One take-away of the conference is that the future of work is at stake itself if we don't build responsible recruitment into the system. Panelists agreed that it is essential to have international standards built into the environment at every level; companies must affirm and implement mandatory human rights due diligence; governments must build the rule of law and all stakeholders must make sure that migrant workers can exercise their rights as workers.. and human beings.