The HP Foreign Migrant Worker Standard was developed in consultation with Verité, an international nonprofit that promotes safe, fair, and legal working conditions. Through its efforts, Verité has gained extensive expertise in combatting forced labor in supply chains. 

"HP's standard requiring direct hiring will remove a key obstacle to ethical treatment of migrant workers. The standard sets a new bar and will likely result in substantial financial benefit to foreign migrant workers in HP's supply chain, and we hope other companies will adopt similar policies,” Verité CEO Dan Viederman said in the release.

The standard builds on current effort to educate suppliers on best practices and is part of HP’s Supplier Code of Conduct. Those promulgations already expressly forbid any forced, bonded, indentured, involuntary prison labor, slavery or trafficking of people involved in the company’s supply chain. 

This latest incarnation of HP’s Supplier Code of Conduct also addresses the vulnerabilities of foreign migrant workers as they populate supply chain jobs. Further, the new Code establishes the minimum requirements HP expects of suppliers as they recruit, hire and manage foreign migrant workers.

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Tami Kamin Meyer is an Ohio attorney and writer. She may be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..