The first phase of a project to improve labour conditions at Chinese factories supplying UK companies will concentrate on health and safety.
The China Project, run by the Ethical Trading Initiative and involving 19 retailers, will propose worker and manager training on health and safety, including accident reporting.
In the longer term it will aim to set up elected health and safety committees, and to promote training for worker representatives, along with managers, in ‘modern industrial relations’. The ETI, an alliance of firms, trade unions and non-governmental bodies, says that the committees would be ‘an entry point for increasing worker awareness and representation, and to address other labour rights’.
Companies involved, which include Boots, Levi Strauss, Marks & Spencer, Monsoon, New Look, Next and Sainsbury, hope that by working together they will have more influence with suppliers. The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions is a member of the group.