Practices by Stakeholder 4

Type of Practices by Stakeholder: 
Private Sector Actors
Description: 

Ethical and fair recruitment processes

Recruitment models that impose financial or other obligations on migrants exacerbate vulnerability. Even in the absence of legal or industry requirements, employers and recruiters can promote ethical and fair recruitment by:

  • Avoiding fees or charges to migrants;
  • Ensuring workers’ identity documents and passports are not retained;
  • Participating in accreditation and certification schemes;
  • Promoting ethical and fair recruitment within industries and across sectors;
  • Adopting codes of conduct on the use of recruiters;
  • Enforcing standards on ethical and fair recruitment through supply chains; Using migrant-led rating systems and information on recruiters and employers.

Access to identity documents

Migrants must have access to their identity and travel documents to find safety and assistance during crisis. Measures that facilitate access to identity and travel documents for migrant workers and ensure their validity include:

  • Sending reminders to migrants of document expiration dates;
  • Establishing electronic backup systems to store and easily access copies of documents as a service to migrants;
  • Refraining from withholding identity and travel documents any longer than the time strictly required;
  • In States where employers are responsible for providing consent or exit permits to their migrant employees, establishing mechanisms to ensure that permits will be readily available in the event of a crisis if employees need or wish to be evacuated or leave.

Employers’ duty of care

Employers have responsibilities towards all employees, including migrant workers that stem from obligations related to the duty of care. Due to their non-citizen status, the exercise of duty of care responsibilities towards migrant workers may differ from interventions necessary for citizen workers. Even in the absence of legal or industry standards, employers should consider:

  • What actions may be necessary in the context of crises to comply with their duty of care;
  • How to include provisions in contracts with internationally and locally hired migrant employees to comply with obligations stemming from their duty of care;
  • Developing a code of conduct for suppliers to extend the company’s duty of care policy throughout the labor supply chain;
  • Determining whether and under what circumstances the duty of care extends to employees’ family members.

Code of conduct for suppliers

Many companies have supplier codes of conduct. Supplier codes of conduct can ensure that suppliers enforce safe working conditions and guarantee human and labor rights, including for migrant workers. The following considerations may be valuable for modifying existing codes of conduct or developing new codes of conduct for suppliers:

  • Including provisions on workers’ health and safety, human and labor rights, ethical and fair recruitment practices, forced labor, and trafficking and exploitation;
  • Including provisions on issues directly relevant for crises, such as contingency plans and procedures, identity document practices, and freedom of movement for employees;
  • Establishing monitoring and enforcement mechanisms, including audits and clear procedures in case of violation;
  • Establishing a supplier qualification process for supplier selection, ongoing evaluation, and assessments of suppliers;
  • Providing training on the code of conduct to suppliers.

Mechanisms to recover outstanding wages

Migrant workers who have to be evacuated during a crisis might have earned wages that remain outstanding. Employers can establish mechanisms that enable them to assume responsibility to cover outstanding wages of migrant employees, including by:

  • Unlocking wages in advance and facilitating recovery of outstanding wages;
  • Providing hazard pay to support migrant workers’ needs during a crisis and upon relocation or evacuation;
  • Ensuring that wages are deposited into low-cost savings accounts to ensure transparent recording of deposits;
  • Enrolling in insurance schemes that compensate for outstanding wages;
  • Facilitating reverse remittances by waiving fees or otherwise helping to get money from relatives or communities in States of origin to migrants in host States.