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NEWSLETTER 12, MAY 2000
CCC Projects on Independent Verification
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In 1998, projects on independent verification were started in several
European countries involving CCC partners and industry. After developing
a joint model code of conduct including provisions for implementation,
monitoring and verification together with the International Union
secretariats and several Asian organisations and networks, the need
was felt to test out these ideas. Industry was developing its own
models at high speed, with limited influence of trade unions or NGOs.
Therefore it was considered essential to counter this and work on
alternatives. To enable us to continue campaigning it was necessary
to distinguish between those companies willing to accept the demands
made by the CCC and willing to take concrete steps based upon this
and those who are not. The idea behind these projects is for trade
unions and NGOs from different regions of the world to learn collectively,
and to find ways and tools to create a system for independent verification.
As a result, similar projects have now started in the Netherlands,
Sweden, France and most recently Switzerland, focusing on the practical
aspects of implementing codes of conduct and auditing working conditions
in the workplace. In the UK, the Ethical Trading Initiative is working
on a similar basis, with one pilot in the garment sector in China.
An update of the recent developments of the Dutch and Swedish projects
will be given here.
The Netherlands : The Dutch Foundation
The Fair Wear Charter Foundation was officially founded on 11 March
1999. Since then, effort has been made to work out a structure for
the foundation and the certification body, as well as a detailed
implementation scheme and a management system for the companies
applying for certification. Pilots have started to identify the
bottlenecks in the application of the management system, application
of the code on the ground, and application of the implementation
and auditing procedures.
The Dutch pilots consists of a two-phased track involving two companies
in each phase. The first phase has recently started and involves
two producers, one who wants to test a supplier in Madagascar, and
possibly one in Sri Lanka, and one who wants to test 3 different
suppliers, in Macedonia, Turkey and Poland.
1.The objective of the first phase is to test whether the management
system and the system to asses the company's compliance provides
an objective basis for certification. This phase involves mainly
an assessment of the company's books, contracts and employment and
sourcing records, which will involve commercial auditing firms,
as they have experience of checking a company's paperwork. The extent
to which this verification will include the audit company checking
the reality of the workplace conditions, either through their own
partners or through external sources (local organisations), is one
of the issues under consideration and debate.
2. The second phase of the pilot, which will start this summer,
will focus on benchmarking the problems that arise with the implementation
of the standards of the Foundation's code and the issue of gathering
reliable information about the conditions at the workplace. One
of the central issues at stake here is which kind of auditors should
be used. Several recent audit results have shown that commercial
auditors cannot always gain the confidence of the workers and might
be lacking the sensitivity and experience to deal with social issues.
As a result of this, the term auditor is already perceived with
some suspicion by the workers. Therefore, the Foundation will asses
the possibilities of using alternative social auditors, to be called
'correspondents', from local NGO's, trade unions, research groups,
etc. The challenge will be, of course, to find these kind of correspondents
in all the regions in the world where garments are produced.
It will depend on the results if the programme continues this twin
track approach in the certification process after the pilot. In
other words, using commercial auditors for checking paperwork compliance
(contracts, employment records, etc.) and to use other correspondents
for checking working conditions at the factories.
The Swedish Pilot Project of Independent Verification.
The Swedish Clean Clothes Campaign has been working since 1998
with the four Swedish retailers: H&M, Indiska, KappAhl and Lindex.
The Swedish Pilot project has carried out three preliminary studies
in Bangladesh, China and India. Two pilot studies have been carried
out in Bangladesh and in south India. The audits were carried out
by the project co-ordinator and the auditing company Intertek Testing
Services (ITS) in accordance with the criteria decided by the Pilot
board.
From October 1999 to February 2000 audits were made in Tirupur,
India and in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Pilot board decided that interviews
with the workers, as well as inspections of the factories should
be made. Interviews with randomly selected workers were carried
out by local researchers outside the factories, in a careful way,
in order to minimize the risk for persecution of the workers. The
findings from these interviews were then reported to the social
and ethical auditors from ITS and to the project co-ordinator before
they performed the audits.
The audits were made unannounced and routines of the factories,
salary sheets, working hours, information to workers, etc. were
checked as well as inspection of the factories to check the working
environment, fire routines etc. to see whether they complied with
the codes of conduct and local laws. An evaluation of the fourteen
month long pilot project has recently been made and the Project
group (the CCC/Sweden and the four retailers) has decided to prolong
the project for one more year. The continuation of the project will
be based on the findings from the preliminary studies, the pilot
studies and on findings from the evaluation.
· New criteria will be developed focusing on the certification
of the Swedish retailers.
· Two pilots will be carried out in India and China according
to these criteria.
· The work to develop a trustworthy organization of Independent
Verification will continue.
· Seminars for suppliers will be held in Hong Kong, Dhaka
and Tirupur.
· Information and educational material on codes of conduct
will be developed in different languages.
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