KARMA GLOBAL AIMS TO FIND A RADICAL APPROACH TO A CHANGE IN MINDSET, METHODS AND EMPLOYMENT LAWS BENEFICIAL TO THE TECHNOLOGICAL WORLD OF TODAY!
Karma has now become Karma Global which was incorporated in the year 2004, having now completed almost 19 years of its existence.
As late as April 2021, Karma Global took a very bold step of venturing into foreign shores in terms of shoving up its business prospects in countries like US, UK, UAE, Canada, South East and South East Asia.
It has already made its mark in terms of providing excellent services in the areas of payroll, outsourcing, recruitment and talent acquisition, facility management services and regulatory compliances including immigration, negotiations and employment contracts in these foreign countries as well.
The major services provided by Karma Global include Regulatory Audit, Management Consulting, Strategy Consulting, Financial & Tech Advisory, Risk Advisory, and Legal.
Towards the end of April and the first fortnight of May 2023, Pratik Vaidya, MD & CVO of Karma Global was in the U.S. and Canada attending the Select USA Investment Summit 2023 which came to a close, marking the largest Investment Summit in Select USA history, with 4,900 attendees spanning 83 international markets that was well represented.
There was lot of interactive session at Bay Area Houston where the delegates were briefed about business divisions in Franchise, Business Brokerage, Consulting, Education, Technology and Business Immigration and assistance was also offered to the delegates in buying or selling businesses with more than 400 franchise opportunities.
This delegation in association with the Consulate General of India, US Commercial Service of Dallas, IACC of Greater Houston, the Greater Houston Partnership and Economic Development Offices is another step in IACC’s development of relations with the United States of America.
CANADA DOES MICROSCOPIC PROBE ON NIKE, DYNASTY GOLD BY CRACKING DOWN ON FORCED LABOUR.
WHAT IS MODERN SLAVERY?
“Modern slavery” is an umbrella term covering various forms of coercion into labour situations. This includes such crimes as human trafficking for forced labour, forced commercial sexual exploitation, and indentured labour. A typical typology of modern slavery involves a lack of consent, with victims unable to refuse or leave because of threats, violence, coercion, deception and/or abuse of power.
WHAT IS FORCED LABOUR IN PRIVATE ECONOMIES?
16 million people are affected by privately imposed forced labour, with the majority being women. Half of these people are in debt bondage. Privately imposed forced labour can be found in agriculture, domestic work, manufacturing, construction and several other sectors.
WHAT IS STATE IMPOSED FORCED LABOUR?
This includes citizens recruited by their State Authorities to participate in agriculture or construction work for purposes of economic development, young military conscripts forced to perform work that are not of military nature, and those forced to perform communal services that are not decided upon at the community level. Canada’s ethics watchdog has launched investigations into allegations that Nike Canada and a Gold Mining Company benefitted from Uyghur forced labour in their China operations. The watchdog’s probes stem from complaints filed by a coalition of human rights groups.
The watchdog looked into complaints filed by a coalition of 28 civil society organisations in June 2022.
There were 11 other complaints, besides the ones against Nike and Dynasty Gold, which the watchdog will release reports on soon.
This is the first such investigation announced by the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (Core) since it launched its complaint mechanism in 2021. The agency alleges that Nike Canada Corp has supply relationships with several Chinese companies that an Australian think tank identified as using or benefitting from Uyghur forced labour.
A United Nations report in 2022 found China had committed “serious human rights violations” against Uyghurs, an ethnic Muslim minority population living in the region of Xinjiang, that “may constitute international crimes, in particular, crimes against humanity”. Beijing denies the accusations.
WHAT DOES NIKE AND DYNASTY GOLD HAVE TO SAY ?
Nike says they no longer have ties to the companies accused of using Uyghur forced labour.
Nike says they no longer have ties with these companies and provided information on their due diligence practices.
According to the report, Nike turned down meetings with the ombudsman, but sent a letter saying “we are concerned about reports of forced labour in, and connected to, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR)”.
“Nike does not source products from the XUAR and we have confirmed with our contract suppliers that they are not using textiles or spun yarn from the region.”
Dynasty Gold says these allegations arose after they left the region.
The report on Dynasty Gold suggests it benefitted from the use of Uyghur forced labour at a mine in China in which the gold mining company holds a majority interest.
The mining company says it does not have operational control over the mine and that these allegations arose after it left
Dynasty’s chief executive Ivy Chong told the CBC the initial report was “totally unfounded”.
Who are the Uyghurs?
The Uyghurs are the largest minority ethnic group in China’s north-western province of Xinjiang
What the Canadian Authorities have to say !
Sheri Meyer Hoffer, the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), says she has enough to launch an investigation into allegations that Nike Canada and Canadian gold mining company Dynasty Gold are benefiting from the forced labour of Uyghurs in China.
Advocates have called for better enforcement of Canadian law when it comes to the use of forced labour to produce goods. Since Canada introduced its first law to fight forced labour in 2020, it has intercepted just one shipment of goods linked to such practices. The Canada Border Services Agency says that shipment, too, was released after an appeal from the operator.
How has Canada responded?
In 2021, Canadian MPs passed a motion saying China’s treatment of the Uyghur population and other Turkic Muslim minority groups amounted to a genocide, according to the definition set out in the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
The motion — which passed 266 to 0 — was supported by all opposition parties and a handful of lawmakers from the governing Liberal Party. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and most of his cabinet were absent for the vote.
The Integrity Declaration of Doing Business with Xinjiang Entities, first introduced in July 2020, required Canadian companies to file declarations they are not directly or indirectly sourcing products from Chinese entities implicated in forced labour or other human rights violations related to Xinjiang.
But according to the Supply Chain Risk Report 2023, released in January by aid agency World Vision Canada, statistically 7.5 per cent (or one in every 13) imported products that come into Canada could be made by an enslaved labourer.
In May this year, the government introduced Bill S-211, which will impose significant reporting obligations on Canadian businesses and importers and is set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2024.
Businesses that meet certain thresholds will be required to file detailed public reports on measures they have taken to identify, address and prevent forced labour, prison labour and child labour in their supply chains. The first of these reports is due to be filed on or before May 31, 2024.
How has Canada previously dealt with forced labour?
Canada’s first attempt to address forced labour came in 2020 after the renegotiation of North America’s trilateral trade deal.
The Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) was adopted to replace the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement. Its labour provisions mean the three North American countries are not only required to ensure fair labour practices within their respective trade industries, but also to actively introduce measures that ban the import of goods produced using forced labour.
While the U.S. already had regulations banning the import of goods made by forced labour in the Tariffs Act when CUSMA was being negotiated, Canada and Mexico did not.
But in February 2020, Canada introduced the Modern Slavery Act, which was meant to compel companies to report their efforts to prevent the use of forced labour or child labour.
While they share the same humanitarian goal of eradicating forced labour, the other bills introduced in Canada, including Bill S-211, impose reporting obligations on private companies and require transparency in the supply chain, but have no direct effect on the flow of goods in and out of the country.
CONCLUSION
SOME STATISTICS: GLOBAL SLAVERY INDEX / COUNTRY STUDY CHINA
The estimated number living in modern slavery: 5,771,000 (4.0 per thousand)
Vulnerability: 46 /100
Government response rating: 40 /100
Population: 1,439,324,000
GDP per capita (PPP): 17,189 (current international $)
China’s central role in global production – it is the world’s largest exporter of goods – is a cause for concern as exports from China are increasingly at risk of being tainted by state-imposed forced labour. Since 2018, evidence of forced labour of Uyghur and other Turkic and Muslim majority peoples has emerged in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (Uyghur Region).
Forced labour imposed by private actors is also reported, in addition to forced marriage and organ trafficking, with vulnerability primarily driven by discriminatory government practices. While China demonstrated some efforts to tackle modern slavery through sustained coordination at the national and regional levels – including by adopting a new national action plan for 2021 to 2030. Its overall response is critically undermined by the use of state-imposed forced labour.
Imported products at risk of modern slavery
China is not only affected by modern slavery within its borders: as one of the world’s largest economies, China – like other G20 countries – is exposed to the risk of modern slavery through the products it imports. Nearly two-thirds of all forced labour cases are linked to global supply chains, with workers exploited across a wide range of sectors and at every stage of the supply chain. Most forced labour occurs in the lowest tiers of supply chains; that is, in the extraction of raw materials and in production stages. Given the G20’s level of influence in the global economy, it is critical to examine their imports at risk of forced labour and efforts to address this risk. China imports US$17.2 billion of products at-risk of being made using forced labour annually.
Proprietary blog of Karma Global
This blog has been collated and compiled by the internal staff of Karma Global with the knowledge and expertise that they possess, besides adaptation, illustration, derivation, transformation, collection and auto-generation for its monthly newsletter Issue 14 of August 2023 and in case of specific or general information or compliance updates for that matter, kindly reach out to the Marketing Team – Kush@karmamgmt.com / yashika@karmamgmt.com