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An upgraded ethical supply chain auditing process now in use by the
clothing retailer H&M has uncovered more serious breaches of
workplace standards than its old methods – especially in Europe.
The Swedish multinational says its Full Audit Programme (FAP), which involves less frequent but more detailed audits than its previous monitoring regime and includes more worker interviews, has identified ‘more complicated and sometimes serious non-compliance issues’.
The company will not be able to compare results fully between the old and new systems until next year, but says the statistics it has gathered to date indicate that non-compliance is often greater in supplier factories in Europe than in Asia. H&M stresses the figures, which cover only 170 facilities on both continents, are preliminary and are not representative of its entire supply base.
Nevertheless, it has been ‘quite surprised’ by the results in Europe – particularly on health and safety, where performance across 89 audits in Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania, Morocco, Romania and Turkey was often worse than in the 81 audits of factories in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India and Indonesia.
Three-quarters of European facilities covered by the new audits had inadequate first aid training and equipment, compared with only a fifth in Asia, while almost half in Europe failed to provide protective equipment for workers, compared with a fifth in Asia.
European facilities also often performed no better than those in Asia on workers rights, with three-quarters having unsatisfactory grievance procedures and/or poor performance on overtime pay – roughly the same levels as in Asia. The company’s 40 fulltime auditors check more than 300 items and conduct off- and onsite worker interviews.
H&M is moving from a ‘policing’ approach that identifies infractions in an effort to ‘dig deeper’ into the underlying causes and work more closely with suppliers. One advantage of the new regime is that fewer audits are now needed, which has been welcomed by suppliers.
H&M, which says the new programme represents a ‘major shift’ in how the retailer audits its supply chain, has around 700 suppliers, two-thirds in Asia and the rest mainly in Europe, which together employ 700,000 people, including subcontractors. It sells clothes and cosmetics in 1196 stores in 22 countries.
In 2004 H&M carried out 2715 audits under its former monitoring regime, but this fell to 2670 when the company brought in the FAP last year. By the end of this year, with the new monitoring system rolled out fully, the number of inspections is expected to drop significantly.
The Swedish multinational says its Full Audit Programme (FAP), which involves less frequent but more detailed audits than its previous monitoring regime and includes more worker interviews, has identified ‘more complicated and sometimes serious non-compliance issues’.
The company will not be able to compare results fully between the old and new systems until next year, but says the statistics it has gathered to date indicate that non-compliance is often greater in supplier factories in Europe than in Asia. H&M stresses the figures, which cover only 170 facilities on both continents, are preliminary and are not representative of its entire supply base.
Nevertheless, it has been ‘quite surprised’ by the results in Europe – particularly on health and safety, where performance across 89 audits in Bulgaria, Italy, Lithuania, Morocco, Romania and Turkey was often worse than in the 81 audits of factories in Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India and Indonesia.
Three-quarters of European facilities covered by the new audits had inadequate first aid training and equipment, compared with only a fifth in Asia, while almost half in Europe failed to provide protective equipment for workers, compared with a fifth in Asia.
European facilities also often performed no better than those in Asia on workers rights, with three-quarters having unsatisfactory grievance procedures and/or poor performance on overtime pay – roughly the same levels as in Asia. The company’s 40 fulltime auditors check more than 300 items and conduct off- and onsite worker interviews.
H&M is moving from a ‘policing’ approach that identifies infractions in an effort to ‘dig deeper’ into the underlying causes and work more closely with suppliers. One advantage of the new regime is that fewer audits are now needed, which has been welcomed by suppliers.
H&M, which says the new programme represents a ‘major shift’ in how the retailer audits its supply chain, has around 700 suppliers, two-thirds in Asia and the rest mainly in Europe, which together employ 700,000 people, including subcontractors. It sells clothes and cosmetics in 1196 stores in 22 countries.
In 2004 H&M carried out 2715 audits under its former monitoring regime, but this fell to 2670 when the company brought in the FAP last year. By the end of this year, with the new monitoring system rolled out fully, the number of inspections is expected to drop significantly.
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