Word: conductivity
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...response, companies scrambled to put together codes of conduct and teams of auditors. Bigger firms either set up their own monitoring departments or hired auditing firms to check up on their overseas factories. Gap, the U.S.-based retailing giant, now has a staff of about 90 overseeing working conditions in factories that supply its clothes, and last year it conducted 4,927 inspections in 1,879 factories worldwide. Such initiatives are part of a much broader effort by Western firms to embrace the tenets of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Annual reports today glow with descriptions of companies' attempts...
...shadowy industry has sprung up in China in recent years that caters to factory owners anxious to disguise breaches of clients' codes of conduct - illegal overtime, say, or a lack of fire extinguishers on the factory floor. Unscrupulous consultants offer quick fixes before a factory is audited; for a price, they can even pose as a fake management team to convince auditors that a sound leadership structure is in place. Factory owners can also buy computer software that presets the times when workers punch in and out, so no illegal overtime shows up on time cards. Lower-tech tactics, employed...
...same time that Western firms were pushing harder than ever for lower prices and faster turnarounds. From the mid-1990s onwards, "many multinationals were telling factories, 'Give me this cheaply, give me this quickly - and, by the way, comply with your local labor law, or our code of conduct, whichever is higher,'" says Ayesha Khan, a manager with BSR, a CSR consultancy...
...transferred the skills or expertise needed to provide decent jobs." Many companies don't care (as long as the audits look good), but more progressive firms are working to develop creative new ways to improve factory conditions, moving far beyond mainstream tactics like auditing and standard codes of conduct...
...Fair Labor Association calls "something of a dirty little secret." One manufacturer with 15 factories in seven countries told Van Heerden that he had to deal with more than 250 audits a year, each costing an average of $1,600. Small wonder many factory managers see multinationals' codes of conduct as a plot to blunt their competitive edge. In a pre-audit pep talk to workers one Chinese factory manager railed: "Social responsibility is in essence trade barriers, uplifting our costs and slashing our competitiveness...