Known issues when recruiting migrant workers include high recruitment fees paid for by the workers themselves, and having their passports withheld. This leads to the risk of forced or bonded labour. On the other side of the coin, employers with high numbers of migrant workers might struggle with skills mismatches and high employee turnover.
In the last couple of years, we have done several projects with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to map labour supply chains leading to IKEA suppliers in South East Asia. This included assessments at the suppliers and at recruitment agencies in both the countries of origin of migrant workers and countries of destination.
It provided a clearer picture of migrant workers’ journeys from their homes to IKEA suppliers in selected corridors, and highlighted the risks associated with cross-border recruitment. In many countries, legislation and established practice are based on workers paying recruitment fees and costs.
Workers can accumulate high levels of debt before they even start working at their employer in the country of destination. Based on learnings from this project, the IKEA Guidelines on Responsible Recruitment have been developed. They aim to build the understanding and ability of suppliers to responsibly manage the recruitment of migrant workers. The focus is on cross-border migration through recruitment agencies or intermediaries, but the general principles apply to all types of recruitment of all workers.
To extend the impact beyond our own suppliers, we are one of the founding members of the Leadership Group for Responsible Recruitment which is convened by the Institute for Human Rights and Business.
It is a group of like-minded companies and organisations set up with the aim of eradicating worker-paid recruitment fees over the coming decade, based on the “Employer Pays” principle. Because we strongly believe that migrant workers should be treated with respect, we have committed to advocate for this goal more widely, with governments, businesses and other relevant organisations, and continue to look for ways to assist and support migrant workers.
