Canadian telecoms business Aastra has created an ethical policy for its suppliers that sets out guidelines on areas such as health and safety, treatment of staff and the environment.
Adherence to the ‘EthoSourcing’ policy – based on the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct developed in 2004 – will be monitored by one full-time and one part-time auditor located in South-East Asia and North America respectively. The company says it will use in-house auditors initially, but may use external ones later.
The code, which has not been made public, will apply to Aastra’s dozen main suppliers in South-East Asia, where risks are thought to be the highest. Aastra told EP: ‘We will expand the programme to cover all our strategic partners, including those in Europe/Eastern Europe, in the near future.’
Any supplier found to be in breach will be offered support and ‘mentoring’, while further lapses ‘could be cause for us to move our business elsewhere’. Aastra, which has operations in 17 countries, has an annual turnover of C$600million (US$599m, £305m).
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