Experiences from Two CCC Pilot Projects on Monitoring and Verification of Code Compliance

By Nina Ascoly and Ineke Zeldenrust

October 2003

SOMO
Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations
Keizersgracht 132
1015 CW Amsterdam
Ph: + 31 20 6391291
Fax: + 31 20 6391321
www.somo.nl
info@somo.nl

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This report has been written in the context of the SOMO project
"Supporting European Initiatives on Monitoring and Verification of Codes of Conduct in the Garment and Sportswear Industries,"
www.somo.nl/monitoring

Introduction

For the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) China, as an important venue for garment production, was a logical place to situate some of the pilot projects on possible methods for monitoring and verifying compliance with codes of labor standards that the campaign started to become involved in between 1998-2001. These projects brought together major European garment companies/retailers with various CCC coalitions to test ideas on what possible methods could be used in good monitoring and verification systems. The CCC has long maintained that such systems must include channels for participation and a role in decision making for relevant stakeholders in the actual countries where garments are produced. From the CCC's perspective these projects, intended to be multi-stakeholder initiatives to test paths for positive development, could only truly merit the label "multi-stakeholder" if the most important stakeholder -- workers -- were involved. This makes China, with its lack of independent unions, a special challenge. Are there ways to ensure that workers in China play a participatory role in monitoring and verification processes? In reality, these pilot projects in China were just as much about learning about the reality of China as they were about getting hands on monitoring and verification experience.

This case study, and a similar study of CCC pilot projects in India during the same period, was undertaken in an effort to present these experiences and the lessons learned from the projects to a broader audience. Because this is a dynamic moment in the development of monitoring and verification of garment industry code compliance, as demonstrated by the emergence of several multi-stakeholder initiatives that take up these issues, and increasing interest from labor rights advocates and industry. These experiences were seen as valuable input for ongoing debates on how to structure such systems.

This case study was written in the context of the project "Supporting European Initiatives on Monitoring and Verification of Codes of Conduct in the Garment and Sportswear Industries," an EU-funded project coordinated by the Amsterdam-based Center for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO). The project, which brought together the leadership of the main multi-stakeholder initiatives and the ethical trade movement on monitoring and verification of codes of conduct active in Europe in 2002-2003, follows upon a related project, carried out in 2000-2001 that brought together representatives from five European code compliance initiatives. These SOMO projects have provided valuable forums to discuss many of the pilot experiences and related issues, and these insights have to some extent been incorporated into the case studies. The bulk of the information presented below is taken from the pilot project reports and associated documentation, as well as some interviews (in-person or via e-mail) with several key figures involved in the projects. Comments and quotes from those involved in the projects that appear below do not necessarily reflect the opinions of all the project participants or of the Clean Clothes Campaign. It is important to note that though these were CCC-initiated projects, intended to test the CCC's ideas about multi-stakeholder possibilities for monitoring and verification of code compliance, the CCC was ultimately only one participant in the projects and the boards that guided them.