Forced labour
Forced labour, or a high risk of it, exists in almost all production countries and most tiers of the electronics supply chain. In 2023, the Global Slavery Index identified electronics as the top at-risk goods category for forced labour imported by G20 countries. Cases of forced labour in the mining sector have been documented in artisanal small-scale mining (ASM) as well as in formal, large-scale mining (LSM) operations, for instance, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (cobalt, copper), Indonesia (nickel) or in China (titanium, lithium).
Electronics Watch identifies six forms of forced labour:
Forced labour extracted under the threat of penalty
- Forced student labour: student internships unrelated to students' area of study and must be completed to receive one's diploma.
- Restrictions on the right to resign: working against one's will after being told that resignation will result in income being withheld.
- Forced overtime: overtime hours that exceed legal limits and are imposed by telling workers that they will be given a poor performance review for refusing to work overtime.
Forms of forced labour extracted through entrapment
- Debt bondage: work undertaken to pay off loans incurred by migrant workers to pay for their recruitment fees.
- Deceit or withholding of essential information: workers receive lower pay and fewer days off than was promised by the recruitment agent, or are not informed that they are handling toxic chemicals. If they had known, they could have chosen not to accept the job.
- Restriction of movement: the employer has confiscated migrant workers' identity documents to prevent them from resigning their position and returning home. In some instances workers cannot leave their dormitories without permission.
