Americans have a long history of promoting workers’ rights at home and abroad. During the 1990s, a particularly vibrant movement formed against “sweatshop” conditions in third-world factories. Multinational brands responded by establishing codes of conduct and developing industry-wide standards. They then policed standards via a burgeoning, third-party social auditing industry. Today, the Ethical Trading Initiative estimates that brands spend $50 billion annually on third-party auditing of suppliers.

Despite this effort, worker abuses are still pervasive across the world. An estimated 12.3 million people endure forced labor conditions and 6,000 workers die daily of work-related accidents or diseases. Brands are often unaware these issues exist in their supply-chains until it’s too late; either the media discovers the situation or a dramatic episode draws attention to prevailing problems. The result is bad press, a decline in company morale and, in high-profile cases, profit loss.

Pundits attribute this dichotomy to difficulties inherent to the social auditing process. Large firms struggle to get accurate data due to savvy factory managers that skew results by coaching workers and/or hiding particularly ill-treated workers. Add in the fact auditors are susceptible to pressure, bribes, etc and it is easy to understand why abuses are sometimes overlooked under the existing system. In addition, workers often fear negative repercussions for speaking out about conditions, so rarely express grievances with auditors. Brands are stuck with an expensive, less-than-ideal service, while workers lack the voice they need to improve their situation.

Read more about how Good World Solutions plans to address these challenges and improve the lives of low-income workers globally.