Eradicating Modern Slavery: Identifying High-Risk Suppliers With the STRT

I am delighted to have been accepted a member of the Social Responsibility Alliance    STRT Development Committee member  to  level my experience to help strengthen a tool that can benefit every business performing modern slavery due diligence.

What is the STRT? 

The STRT provides businesses confidence in the data underpinning their modern slavery programs. It is an open-source tool companies use for targeted modern slavery due diligence. It allows them to survey suppliers for a broad range of risk, get more visibility into supply chain operations and acquire the necessary data to show supply chain due diligence in public modern slavery disclosures. The demand for this solution was created by a quickly-expanding body of legislation that includes the:

• United States Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Final Rule on Combating Trafficking in Persons (52.222-50).
• United Kingdom Modern Slavery Act (Section 54 — Transparency in Supply Chains).
• California Transparency in Supply Chains Act (SB 657).
• Trade Facilitation and Trade Enforcement Act.
• French Corporate Duty of Vigilance Law (2017-399).
• Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (Title III).
• European Union Non-Financial Reporting Directive.
• Australia Modern Slavery Act.

Administering the STRT to Suppliers

Assent Compliance used its considerable experience in supply chain data management to launch the STRT in late 2016. Companies are choosing the STRT because it is:

• Quick and easy to deploy across all suppliers, in multiple languages
• Cost-efficient.

Due to the simplicity and rigor of the STRT data request, companies are getting the data they need to inform onward due diligence action. One test of the STRT found that of 30 suppliers, 29 completed and returned the template (a supplier response rate of 97 percent). Of them, the supplier that did not complete the STRT is now considered high-risk, and will need to participate in an on-site modern slavery threat assessment to maintain their contract.

Data acquired through the STRT can be used to enhance modern slavery disclosure statements, which is a necessary resource in the modern global business landscape.

For more guidance on how to use the STRT, the SRA keeps a range of up-to-date educational materials on its website, including an FAQ and scoping guidance to help identify high risk suppliers.

For more information about how the STRT can help your company identify and mitigate modern slavery risk, visit www.socialresponsibilityalliance.org.

About the Social Responsibility Alliance

The SRA is an initiative focused on providing companies the open-source tools, resources and support they need to build socially responsible supply chains through the collection of responsible sourcing data. Founded in 2017, the initiative seeks to more broadly facilitate the collection of human and labor rights data to spark change in global supply chains and improve the lives of those impacted by human rights violations.