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Businesses have been urged to pay more attention to promoting
reproductive health for women working in their supply chains in
developing countries.
The US-based Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) says big brands rarely put enough pressure on supplier factories to provide female employees with health checks and advice on family planning, HIV/Aids and cervical and breast cancer, even though this would result in less absenteeism, greater productivity, higher-quality work, and lower staff turnover.
BSR came to its conclusions after making 29 prearranged factory visits in China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines and Vietnam. About half were in the apparel sector, and all supplied BSR’s 250 corporate members.
Monitors found some instances of good practice, such as one unnamed footwear company that set up a mobile reproductive health clinic offering gynaecological and family planning services to nearly 200 workers a month. ‘Notable strides’ have been made since BSR last looked at the issue in 2002, but many women workers still lack access to such services. Reproductive health, therefore, ‘remains a neglected issue along the global supply chain’.
The key to providing health services in factories, says BSR, is to ensure they are on offer at least monthly and at points close to where workers congregate, such as a canteen.
BSR believes promoting female health is especially important in developing countries, where women account for a disproportionately large percentage of the workforce in manufacturing for export markets. It offers no figures to confirm that providing health advice enhances business performance, but reports that ‘without exception’ the factory managers it interviewed agreed with the supposition. Despite this, male managers do not think women’s health issues are especially important, and need encouragement from companies that buy from them, it adds.
The US-based Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) says big brands rarely put enough pressure on supplier factories to provide female employees with health checks and advice on family planning, HIV/Aids and cervical and breast cancer, even though this would result in less absenteeism, greater productivity, higher-quality work, and lower staff turnover.
BSR came to its conclusions after making 29 prearranged factory visits in China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines and Vietnam. About half were in the apparel sector, and all supplied BSR’s 250 corporate members.
Monitors found some instances of good practice, such as one unnamed footwear company that set up a mobile reproductive health clinic offering gynaecological and family planning services to nearly 200 workers a month. ‘Notable strides’ have been made since BSR last looked at the issue in 2002, but many women workers still lack access to such services. Reproductive health, therefore, ‘remains a neglected issue along the global supply chain’.
The key to providing health services in factories, says BSR, is to ensure they are on offer at least monthly and at points close to where workers congregate, such as a canteen.
BSR believes promoting female health is especially important in developing countries, where women account for a disproportionately large percentage of the workforce in manufacturing for export markets. It offers no figures to confirm that providing health advice enhances business performance, but reports that ‘without exception’ the factory managers it interviewed agreed with the supposition. Despite this, male managers do not think women’s health issues are especially important, and need encouragement from companies that buy from them, it adds.
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