Bhutta MF

Bostock B

Brown JA

Day E

Hughes A

Hurst R

Trautrims A

Trueba M

This paper evaluates ways in which labour issues in global value chains for medical gloves have been affected by, and addressed through, the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on production in Malaysia and supply to the United Kingdom\u27s National Health Service and draws on a large-scale survey with workers and interviews with UK government officials, suppliers and buyers. Adopting a Global Value Chain (GVC) framework, the paper shows how forced labour endemic in the sector was exacerbated during the pandemic in the context of increased demand for gloves. Attempts at remediation are shown to operate through both a reconfigured value chain in which power shifted dramatically to the manufacturers and a context where public procurement became higher in profile than ever before. It is argued that the purchasing power of governments must be leveraged in ways that more meaningfully address labour issues, and that this must be part of value chain resilience

Newcastle University E-Prints

Global value chains for medical gloves during the COVID-19 pandemic: Confronting forced labour through public procurement and crisis

Global value chains for medical gloves during the COVID-19 pandemic: Confronting forced labour through public procurement and crisis

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Newcastle University E-Prints