Three multinational footwear companies are planning to expand a pilot project that has increased worker participation and improved health and safety in Chinese supplier factories.
An independent evaluation of the ‘China capacity building project’ set up jointly by Adidas-Salomon, Nike and Reebok with local non-governmental bodies, says the initiative has formed the basis for what could be ‘new systems of corporate accountability’ in the country.
The project included four days of health and safety training for 90 workers at three plants run by contract manufacturers in Guangdong – Kong Tai Shoes, Pegasus Shoes, and Yue Yuen II. It has also played a part in establishing health and safety committees at the factories and involved trade unions – a rarity in China.
The final report of the project, written by the Maquiladora Health & Safety Support Network, a US-based volunteer group of more than 400 occupational health and safety practitioners, claims the work ‘may lay the basis for developing more extensive systems of worker participation and external processes of corporate responsibility in China’.
However, it adds that more work needs to be done at the plants in question because of their size – they have between 5000 and 30,000 employees each. This will mean developing networks of ‘peer trainers’ to spread health and safety information at shop floor level.
The three companies say they want to build on the work in Guangdong ‘to advance larger-scale efforts to develop systems of monitoring and worker participation.’