Back in spring, we wrote about a pending lawsuit against Bumblebee Foods brought by foreign plaintiffs in US courts. It alleges that Bumblebee Foods knew or should have known that its suppliers were using forced labor. The case has now moved beyond the preliminary stages, surviving a Motion to Dismiss from Bumblebee. The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre discusses the court’s ruling in a recent article:
“The court ruled that the fishers presented sufficient allegations of forced labor as defined by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, noting that Bumble Bee did not contest the fishers were subject to forced labor. The court also found that Bumble Bee ‘likely had ‘notice about the prevalence’ of forced labor on the vessels from which it sourced tuna, ‘failed to take adequate steps to train staff in order to prevent its occurrence,’ had an ‘active role in obtaining albacore tuna from the vessels on which Plaintiffs were subject to forced labor,’ and resold the tuna for profit…”
This case is similar to the Chiquita case in Florida and BNP Paribas case in New York. Both of those cases saw US courts hold companies liable for enabling human rights abuses in other countries.
Companies continue to be held accountable for activity that occurs in their supply chains, even if that isn’t under their direct control. Supply chain management continues to be a major challenge, and failure to mitigate human rights abuses comes with real costs.
Our members can learn more about supply chain management here.
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