Padmaja Pai is a ethical trade consultant specialized in human rights and social compliance. She has spent over three decades helping businesses understand the realities workers face on the ground and translate those insights into better business practices.
Padmaja Pai is the Founder of LINK Ethical Trade Consulting. She has rich on-the-ground experience implementing human rights across various sectors in South Asia. Her strength lies in her ability to connect with people at every level, from factory floors to boardrooms, understanding their experiences and bringing those insights to the corporate table so that businesses can use them to make more informed decisions
Question 1: What are the three things people should know about you?
For over three decades, my work has been about supporting the improvement of conditions for workers. Primarily in India, but also in other parts of the world. I have worked with factories in garments, agriculture, furnishings, carpet, glass, steel and many other sectors.
I can move between very different worlds, from the factory floors in Coimbatore to offices of global brands, and find common ground between them.
One thing I am very clear about is that I do not just build strategies and hand them over. I make sure, as much as possible, that I am there for the execution. Even when factory managers say it is too difficult, we figure it out together because it can be done.
Question 2: What fascinates you about your work?
I love interacting with people and that is what fascinates me the most. I enjoy sitting with people, listening to them and understanding what is really going happening in their lives. My work has always been about connecting different worlds by buildng a bridge between workers and companies, amplifying voices of workers and helping businesses understand that listening to those voices makes them more resilient.
Question 3: If there were no limitations, what would you recommend companies do to advance the rights of people in business?
I would want companies to stop thinking of human rights as something separate from the business. It is the business! If your workers are not well, your business is not well.
I don’t believe in relying on a single audit, a survey, or a suggestion box on the wall, but in workers being actually engaged when decisions are made.
Question 4: What is the most pressing question in your field of work right now, and how are you approaching it?
Maybe not one pressing question but a pressing topic I feel very strongly about is this: in my three decades of working in the field, I have seen that box-ticking rarely changes anything for workers. In many cases, suppliers are expected to implement changes without enough support. What actually changes things is collaboration between brands and suppliers, when a brand says to a supplier, “I am here to work with you,” and resources are shared and there is dialogue.
My approach has always been to help organizations see that implementing human rights and business performance are not two different things. They are the same thing! A factory that treats its workers well runs better, produces better and retains better. So I help companies build systems that support the business and the workers at the same time.
Question 5: What will the world of responsible business look like in 10 years?
Honestly, I cannot tell you what the world will look like in ten years. But I can tell you what I hope for and I can tell you what I am seeing right now.
In India, things are shifting fast. More migrant workers are coming into the lowest-paid jobs, the gig economy is growing but without the protections that workers need. These are real people and the changes are happening faster than anyone is preparing for.
What I hope is that responsible business stops being something companies choose to do and becomes simply how business is done. I am an optimist and I have seen change happen. Change may be slowly, but it happens.
Get in touch with Padmaja Pai via Linkedin, via email.
