ILO Releases Updated Guidance on State-Imposed Forced Labour, Will Inform EUFLR Enforcement

This summer, the International Labour Organization (ILO) released updated guidance on the identification of state-imposed forced labour. The goal of this guidance is to explain the legal foundation of state-imposed forced labour, outline structural risk factors and indicators of coercion, and present a clear legal test for distinguishing lawful state authority from prohibited practices.

This updated guidance is of particular relevance to companies awaiting the application of the EU Forced Labour Regulation (EUFLR) in December 2027. The finalized guidance for the EUFLR refers to the ILO's definitions of state-imposed forced labour, and it mentions that competent authorities will prioritize claims of state-imposed forced labour as the most severe during their investigations.

Circumstances and mechanisms commonly associated with forced labour

The guidance includes a non-exhaustive list of common circumstances that may be associated with forced labour, whether it be state-sponsored or not. These circumstances include:

• Abuse of vulnerability, including abuse of dependencies and/or abuse of formal mechanisms governing employment termination

• Deception, including false or misleading promises regarding wages, hours, working conditions, housing, living conditions, nature of the work, etc

• Debt bondage, including exploitation of debt arising from a loan provided by the employer or recruiter, a wage advance received from the employer, etc

• Abusive working conditions, including hazardous work conditions that pose serious risks to health and safety, degrading or humiliating work violating the worker's dignity, work involving risk of legal jeopardy, including tasks the worker believes to be illegal, etc

• Abusive living conditions, including housing that is overcrowded or lacking in privacy, housing that is unhygienic, unclean or poorly maintained, hazardous, etc

• Physical or sexual violence inflicted on workers or on family members / close associates of workers (threatened or actual). Deprivation of food, water, or sleep as a means of physical punishment (threatened or actual). Other forms of corporal punishment

• Abuse of isolation including deliberate placement at, or retention in, a remote, unfamiliar, or inaccessible location; denial or confiscation of phones, internet, or other means of communication, including digital communications by the employer

• Restrictions on the workers' movement

• Retention of documents, including identification documents and travel documents. Retention of cash, assets and security deposits

• Withholding of wages

• Intimidation and threats

• Excessive overtime, including hours that regularly exceed legal limits, contractual terms, or collective agreement provisions. Inability to refuse overtime without penalty, including dismissal, blacklisting, exclusion from future overtime opportunities, or wage reduction below the contractual or minimum level

  
  

Supply chain mapping is required to ensure supply chains do not pass through regions where state-imposed forced labour is suspected

The EUFLR guidance places the onus on economic operators (i.e. companies placing their products on the market) to remediate credible claims of forced labour in their supply chain. However, the guidance acknowledges that not all instances of forced labour are capable of remediation by economic operators, particularly in the case of state-sponsored forced labour. Oftentimes the only possible 'remediation' in these instances is to ensure that no steps in a product's supply chain passed through areas where state-sponsored forced labour is suspected. This can only be reliably be achieved via supply chain mapping and collection of chain of custody documentation for associated products.

The EU Commission plans to publish additional guidance regarding priority sectors in the lead up to the December 2027 application deadline for EUFLR. In the meantime, the first round of sector-specific training sessions run by the Commission will begin in mid-September.

Begin preparing your business for EUFLR today. To learn more about how Sourcemap can support your company with the strict due diligence required under EUFLR, reach out to our team of experts today.