But the Global Social Compliance Programme's attempt to improve labour standards will only succeed if it gets more support, says Liz Hamson
You don’t need to read the latest shocking story about child labour to realise how important it is to police the supply chain. But 43 audits in one year? That is the number that one manufacturer claims he has been subjected to – and it isn’t unusually high, says Terry Babbs, group ethical trading director at Tesco. Indeed, there are so many that factory managers are struggling to manage anything else – least of all the problems the audits highlight.
Perhaps not for much longer, though. Behind closed doors, some of the world’s top retailers and suppliers have been collaborating on an ambitious programme to harmonise labour standards, reduce the level of audit duplication and improve working conditions.
The Global Social Compliance Programme, launched in 2007 and run under the auspices of the CIES (now the Consumer Goods Forum) will shortly publish a reference tool on audit systems and methodology that could one day put an end to countless audits and labour abuses – if more businesses lend their support. Currently, few have heard of the GSCP and the only UK representative on the 27-strong global task force is Tesco. But it is a measure of its importance that at last month’s World Food Business Summit, former Wal-Mart president and CEO Lee Scott called on delegates to back the programme.
“We should not reward factories that cheat on overtime, that cheat on the age of the labour, that dump their scraps and their chemicals in our rivers and that don’t pay their taxes or honour their contracts,” he said. “I urge everyone to partner with CIES. This is a good first step to moving our industry away from a complicated patchwork of auditing to a model of training, collaboration, capacity building and continuous improvement.”
The chief problem with labour standards is not so much their quality, says GSCP group chair Babbs, as the sheer number of codes of practice, which is why the first step was to develop a reference code setting out best-practice guidelines.
“Before you audit, you have to have a code,” he says. “There are more than 1,000 different labour codes. Suppliers aren’t getting a clear message.”
After the code’s publication in September, work began on stage two, the audit reference tools, and attention is now turning to the auditors themselves.
“Who are they? What’s their competence? What we want is fewer but better,” says Babbs. “There’s absolutely no point in poor-quality audits that don’t get to the truth.”
Following this, the GSCP will turn to harmonising management systems and information sharing so that by the end of the year it can start getting to grips with the final step, remediation.
“When these bits are in place, you can say, I’ve got this potential supplier, I can see what someone else has done. Instead of going to the factory that had 43 audits in one year, maybe they can have just one,” says Babbs. “We’re trying to create the conditions where we can devote our time to asking: what are these audits telling us?”
Babbs is quick to stress that while companies can sign up now if they want to contribute, the tools will be open source. But some fear Tesco’s lead role may be deterring rival UK retailers from signing up.
“I think in principle it’s a good idea but we’d definitely like to be a stakeholder in the detail,” says a Sainsbury's spokeswoman.
Another issue is lack of awareness. “It sounds interesting but it’s not something that’s come across our radar,” admits FDF director of communications Julian Hunt.
Scott’s call to arms will help and the programme has also recently been endorsed by an independent advisory board chaired by Antoine Bernard from the International Federation for Human Rights. But it will need wider backing than this to succeed.
The Consumer Goods Forum must now do what its predecessor too often failed to with important initiatives and whip up support among the rank and file.
You don’t need to read the latest shocking story about child labour to realise how important it is to police the supply chain. But 43 audits in one year? That is the number that one manufacturer claims he has been subjected to – and it isn’t unusually high, says Terry Babbs, group ethical trading director at Tesco. Indeed, there are so many that factory managers are struggling to manage anything else – least of all the problems the audits highlight.
Perhaps not for much longer, though. Behind closed doors, some of the world’s top retailers and suppliers have been collaborating on an ambitious programme to harmonise labour standards, reduce the level of audit duplication and improve working conditions.
The Global Social Compliance Programme, launched in 2007 and run under the auspices of the CIES (now the Consumer Goods Forum) will shortly publish a reference tool on audit systems and methodology that could one day put an end to countless audits and labour abuses – if more businesses lend their support. Currently, few have heard of the GSCP and the only UK representative on the 27-strong global task force is Tesco. But it is a measure of its importance that at last month’s World Food Business Summit, former Wal-Mart president and CEO Lee Scott called on delegates to back the programme.
“We should not reward factories that cheat on overtime, that cheat on the age of the labour, that dump their scraps and their chemicals in our rivers and that don’t pay their taxes or honour their contracts,” he said. “I urge everyone to partner with CIES. This is a good first step to moving our industry away from a complicated patchwork of auditing to a model of training, collaboration, capacity building and continuous improvement.”
The chief problem with labour standards is not so much their quality, says GSCP group chair Babbs, as the sheer number of codes of practice, which is why the first step was to develop a reference code setting out best-practice guidelines.
“Before you audit, you have to have a code,” he says. “There are more than 1,000 different labour codes. Suppliers aren’t getting a clear message.”
After the code’s publication in September, work began on stage two, the audit reference tools, and attention is now turning to the auditors themselves.
“Who are they? What’s their competence? What we want is fewer but better,” says Babbs. “There’s absolutely no point in poor-quality audits that don’t get to the truth.”
Following this, the GSCP will turn to harmonising management systems and information sharing so that by the end of the year it can start getting to grips with the final step, remediation.
“When these bits are in place, you can say, I’ve got this potential supplier, I can see what someone else has done. Instead of going to the factory that had 43 audits in one year, maybe they can have just one,” says Babbs. “We’re trying to create the conditions where we can devote our time to asking: what are these audits telling us?”
Babbs is quick to stress that while companies can sign up now if they want to contribute, the tools will be open source. But some fear Tesco’s lead role may be deterring rival UK retailers from signing up.
“I think in principle it’s a good idea but we’d definitely like to be a stakeholder in the detail,” says a Sainsbury's spokeswoman.
Another issue is lack of awareness. “It sounds interesting but it’s not something that’s come across our radar,” admits FDF director of communications Julian Hunt.
Scott’s call to arms will help and the programme has also recently been endorsed by an independent advisory board chaired by Antoine Bernard from the International Federation for Human Rights. But it will need wider backing than this to succeed.
The Consumer Goods Forum must now do what its predecessor too often failed to with important initiatives and whip up support among the rank and file.
No comments yet