Patagonia: Tackling Human Trafficking in Global Supply Chains

This case is based on Patagonia's journey to eliminate human trafficking from their supply chain. The case takes students through Patagonia's discovery of forced labor and debt bondage amongst their suppliers in Taiwan and later in Thailand, allowing students to examine their decision about how to best approach these issues. The case goes through the company SER team's initiatives to ensure Patagonia's suppliers maintain ethical business and employment practices. In 2011, the SER team proactively conducted social responsibility audits with their Tier 2 supplying mills and factories in Taiwan. The audits revealed multiple cases of human trafficking, forced labor including debt bondage, and other forms of labor exploitation among the migrant workers employed by the Tier 2 Taiwanese factories. Between 2011-2017, the SER employees worked hard alongside their factory partners to identify the changes that needed to be made to put an end to the forced labor and debt bondage uncovered by the 2011 audits. Multiple initiatives were launched during this time, such as comprehensive Migrant Worker Employment Standards and a "Roadmap to No Fees by 2020." Despite this, in 2019, Patagonia discovered that illegal and exploitative employment practices were still being utilized in a Tier 1 sewing factory in Thailand. At this point, the SER team faced new challenges and decisions.