The International Labor Organization of the United Nations is preparing to release a report by Professor Jennifer Gordon based on the research she conducted during her recent sabbatical. Professor Gordon’s report, “Global Labour Recruitment in a Supply Chain Context,” calls for measures to eliminate the coercion and trafficking that too often accompany global labor migration.
“The structure of work has changed through globalization, but our regulation of work has not,” explains Professor Gordon. “My project seeks to address the resulting gap by assigning legal liability in global product, service, and labor supply chains to the actors with the greatest capacity to avoid and remedy abuses.”
In her extensive report, Professor Gordon recommends that governments institute joint liability regimes, making employers of migrant workers responsible for the abusive practices of their labor recruiters in other countries.
Since 1985, Professor Gordon has focused her work on global labor migration issues. She is currently collaborating with her former student Alejandra Ancheita ’10, a graduate of Fordham’s LL.M. program in International Law and Justice, to support the development of a pilot protocol linking the United States and Mexican governments in efforts to address recruitment violations.