By Adam Turteltaub

Matthew Friedman is the CEO of The Mekong Club, an organization supporting the private sector in the fight against modern slavery.  Previously he worked for the United Nations Inter-Agency Project on Human Trafficking and US Agency for International Development.  He has also been a valuable resource for our Report on Supply Chain Compliance.

As he explains in the podcast, there are 16 million people in slavery in the private sector globally.  It’s a problem that is ugly and persistent.

For companies looking at their supply chains, this horrendous problem occurs in a wide range of industries, including fishing, construction, and even medical supplies.

To ensure your organization does not end up using vendors who rely on forced labor, he recommends several steps, including;

* Determining if the workforce is indebted

* Reviewing the contracts that employees have been asked to sign to make sure that they are legal

* Assessing whether the payroll is sufficient to pay the workers properly

He also recommends ongoing auditing and monitoring.

Listen in to learn more about how you can protect your organization from being caught up in human trafficking and modern slavery.