Putting Worker Safety at the Heart of Supply Chain Management

The emphasis of this chapter is on humanizing supply chain management in a manner that benefits workers and the supply chain. This chapter is based on two suppositions with foundations in the extant literature. First, that the safety of the workers in the supply chain is foundational to supply chain management outcomes. Second, that operational or supply chain managers should be responsible for safety management systems. We interrogate these suppositions considering that the COVID pandemic has arguably changed the role of both supply chain and safety management. This likely has significant implications for the relationship between supply chain management and safety, especially when it comes to managing risks. We delve into these recent events and suggest that safety managers might be best placed to manage supply chains risks. Finally, the chapter concludes with a future research agenda so that workers are no longer absent from supply chain management thinking, practice, and research.