MIGRANT WORKER PROJECT TRAINING FRAMEWORKS
Add an introduction to publicize, it’s a brief introduction of our CSR training, especially for better communication with managers.
The tittle can be called:
“ Under the globalize background—CSR training with Chinese Characteristics”.
1. Give a brief topic introduction of CSR, and its globalize background.
2. CSR’s development in China, and the Chinese government’s positive attitudes
3. The CSR case of company , CSR can be a good tool for better business(Soft power of brand, human resource management and improve work efficiency, good communication between managers and workers)
4. The relationshps between Labor Contract Law and spirit of CSR, prepare for economic crisis and regulation of Law.
5. The future and good influence of our CSR training program.
This introduction just set a few pages, and add some pictures and charts in it. It’s for managers to know what our training is, so we don’t put human rights topic in its list, we put our points to CSR topic.
MANAGEMENT TRAINING FRAMEWORK
1 CSR introduction
1.1 Background
(Especially the globalize background and domestic conditions)
2.2 UN Global Compact and other standards
(ISO14000, SA8000, LSO26000 and CSC9000T. The Chinese government’s positive attitudes toward CSR and their policies, important CSR seminars, CSR top list selection, voice of medias)
3.3 HRCA QC
(central idea , framework and purpose, especially point out QC is according to Chinese law, so it can be apply to China)
2 Human resource management
2.1 Theory of human resource management
( Give some examples: Employee Assistance Program EAP, HSE Management System, Learning Organization and more. We also can put CSR Committee in it, and point out the effect of CSR Committee, for instance: raise working efficiency, improve communication between workers and managers and exchange of information, help workers to get more knowledge,etc. )
2.2 Best case practice
( we choose some CSR cases of transnational enterprisesm, like Shell, Nokia, Inter ,etc.
We also choose some cases of local enterprises, like Lenovo, and can pay attention to their performance in the Sichuan earthquake.
We need to choose different kinds of companies, manufacturing, textile industry, IT, engineering industry and pharmaceuticals,etc. It can help our training apply to different kinds of factories.
If we can find some good cases of medium and small enterprises, it would be better)
3 whole model (based on HRCA QC framework) (including migrant workers as a vulnerable group)
I think we can keep the following issues from HRCA QC.
But “Association (freedom of association) and Collective agreement”, this part maybe can only put in worker training.
Hours of Work
Remuneration
Leave and Holiday
Official Employment Status
Privacy, Security and Discipline
Workplace health and safety
Non-discrimination
Child Labor and Young Workers
Representation (worker/employee representation)
Grievance, dispute resolution and remedies
Company-provided dining facilities
Company-provided housing facilitie
Environmental Health and Safety
Mechanisms for grievance, corrective action and dispute resolution
4 labour laws
( this part include labour law and labour contract law)
4.1 Introduce the impact of labour laws to Chinese society,especially the influence of labour contract law.
4.2 Give some specific analysis of legal provision.
4.3 Cases studying, there are two cases heppened after labour contract law passed. “Huawei technologies”,“ Foxconn company”, and we also give some cases happened in medium and small enterprises. We can add some cases from TI’s investigation in Guangdong province.
4.4 principles of equality and non-discrimination, rights of migrant workers and workingwoman
5 Supply chain management
5.1 Theory , especially the globalize background.
5.2 Cases studying(like, Wal-Mart, Carrefourm; we also want to find some cases
of local enterprises)
6 consequences of the economic crisis for companies – risks of violating workers’ conditionsg
6.1 International situation
6.2 Domestic situation
6.3 How to treat with workers.
6.4 Give some discussing topics
WORKER TRAINING FRAMEWORK
1. CSR introduction
1.1 Background
(Especially the globalize background and domestic conditions)
1.2 UN Global Compact and other standards
(ISO14000, SA8000, LSO26000 and CSC9000T. The Chinese government’s positive attitudes toward CSR and their policies, important CSR seminars, CSR top list selection, voice of medias)
1.3 HRCA QC
(central idea , framework and purpose, especially point out QC is according to Chinese law, so it can be apply to China)
2. whole model (based on HRCA QC framework) (including migrant workers as a vulnerable group)
I think we can keep the following issues from HRCA QC.
Hours of Work
Remuneration
Leave and Holiday
Official Employment Status
Privacy, Security and Discipline
Workplace health and safety
Non-discrimination
Child Labor and Young Workers
Association (freedom of association) and Collective agreement
Representation (worker/employee representation)
Grievance, dispute resolution and remedies
Company-provided dining facilities
Company-provided housing facilitie
Environmental Health and Safety
Mechanisms for grievance, corrective action and dispute resolution
3. labour laws
3.1 Introduce the impact of labour laws to Chinese society,especially the influence of labour contract law.
3.2 Give some specific analysis of legal provision.
3.3 Cases studying, there are two cases heppened after labour contract law passed. “Huawei technologies”,“ Foxconn company”, and we also give some cases happened in medium and small enterprises. We can add some cases from TI’s investigation in Guangdong province.
3.4 How to use labour laws to protect workers’s rights.
3.4.1 Labor contract ( sign and dissolution)
3.4.2 wage (minimum wage and arrears wages)
3.4.3 social security
3.4.4 labor dispute (labor arbitration and lawsuit)
3.4.5 principles of equality and non-discrimination. How to defend the rights of migrant workers and workingwoman
4. industrial injuries
4.1 Occupational disease
4.2 How to affirm
4.5 Work Injury Compensation
5. how to get help and advice: trade union system, CSR committee, legal aid (NGO and government run), and government officials
6. life in the cities
6.1. health issues
6.2. personal development, study, skills training, how to get a new or a better job
6.3. what to do with your surplus income - investments
6.4. your family: children’s education, health care etc.
7. consequences of the economic crisis for workers
6.1 International situation
6.2 Domestic situation
6.3 Influence of economic crisis to migrant workers
6.4 How to face it, give some discussing topics
WORKER REPRESENTATIVE/CSR COMMITTEE
Additional part to the general worker training
establishing and formalising the representation function (election, statute, mandate etc.)
framework of CSR committee.
How to elect
Routine work arrangement (meetings, hot line,etc)
worker-management communication
communication and cooperation with trade union system (if established at the company)
collective bargaining, grievance procedures and dispute resolution
2009年4月18日星期六
翻译
Consultation Report on
Human Rights Compliance Assessment Quick Check
How to make the Quick Check
Adaptive to China’s Reality
by
CHEN Lixian & GUO Peiyuan
(Correspondent: guopeiyuan@syntao.com)
SynTao Co. Ltd. June 24th, 2008
How to make the Quick Check Adaptive to China’s Reality
Consultation Report on
Human Rights Compliance Assessment Quick Check
Content Outlines
1. Labor compliance assessment in China
1.1. Certificate and standards: history and status quo
1.2. Are Chinese companies ready?
2. Comments on HRCA Quick Check contents
2.1. Based principles
2.2. Content structure and details
2.3. Content presentation and description
3. Urgency and applicability of indicators
4. Quick Check promotion in China
4.1. Changing the title “Human Rights”
4.2. Driving the companies: pressures and incentives
4.3. Building capacity
4.4. Marketing as a self-diagnose tool
5. Recommendations
Annexes
Annex -1 Recommendations in Chinese language
Annex -2 List of interviewees
Annex -3 Meeting minute for Labor Compliance Assessment Seminar
1. Labor compliance assessment in China
1.1. Certificate and standards: history and status quo
Social and environmental standards have been introduced to China and applied to Chinese factories since middle 1990s. Nowadays, there are several widely accepted guidelines, standards existing in China, such as:
- SA8000, a certifiable standard developed by Social Accountability International
- FLA workplace code of conduct, developed by Fair Labor Association
- Apparel Certification Program Principles, developed by WRAP
- Electronic Industry Code of Conduct, developed by EICC
- CSC9000T, a Chinese guideline developed by CNTAC
A company might need to ask a third party auditor to conduct social auditing to get a certificate for above mentioned standards/guidelines, such as SA8000. Large companies, for instance Nike and Addidas, have developed their own code of conducts and conducted social autiding by themseleves.
Chinese government, particularly the Ministry of Commerce, used to be afraid that social auditing might harm the itnernational trade competitiveness of Chinese companies, hence did not support social auditing and even CSR in early 2000s. This has not been changed very much though the Ministry of Commerce announced that CSR was good for trade competitiveness in 2006. The government supports management guidelines like CSC9000T, but discourages certifiable and compulsory standards.
1.2. Are Chinese companies ready?
CSR has become an unprecedented popular concept in China in recent years, and many Chinese businessmen, particularly those from east coast areas, should have heard about CSR and relevant stories. Most exporting companies have already felt great pressure from their global buyers. Therefore, in terms of awareness, these Chinese companies are generally ready to buy-in CSR and labor compliance concepts.
However, know-how is still lagging behind among many Chinese companies. Business managers realize that they do not have adequate knowledge and skills to handle labor issues in factories. As a consequence, improving labor standards result in higher labor costs, without efficiency increase in some cases, which makes no incentive for managers. This is the reason why some organizations like ILO and CNTAC are working on factory capacity building, rather than social auditing.
Government policies and enforcements are also impacting corporate behaviors. Laws and regulations are well written on paper, but poor in implementation. This reduces risks for bad companies, and lesses incentives for good companies. Such environment is not good for the development of guidelines and standards.
2. Comments on HRCA Quick Check contents
2.1. Based principles
All indicators in the Quick Check are designed on the base of some unversal principles and intenrational conventions related to labor, environment and human right issues. However, Chinese government has not signed all conventions mentioned in this Quick Check. For instance, China has not signed ”CONVENTION No. 87 Convention concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize”. This will make some companies using this Quick Check exposed to some political risks.
At the same time, there are also some Chinese laws and regulations concerning corprorate human right issues, such as Labor Law, and Labor Contract Law, etc. Ideally, these should join those international conventions to form the base of this Quick Check.
2.2. Content structure and details
Generally, the overall structure of the Quick Check is logical and similar with other existing guidelines. It has comprehensively covered various topics related to corporate human right issues, such as forced labor, underage workers, working conditions, community impacts, etc.
However, there are still some important contents missing and some are not sufficient enough for Chinese companies.
Part A: working hour management and overtime payment
Contents of working-hour management, salary and payment, overtime payment and compensations are strongly recommended to add in section A. In the past few years,
China has seen a number of labor disputes, most of which are on overtime work and payment, as well as salary and welfare issues. Delay payment and overtime work are so prevalent in China that they are often ignored by the society. Many of the factory workers are migrant workers who don’t have the knowlege of labor standards and have low demands on payment and other benefits. Meanwhile, the labor market is highly competitive with overpopulated labors. Workers thus have to accept low-level treatments offered by employees. Some
labor-intensive enterprises such as companies of garment, toy, furniture and electronics lower the prices of products by reducing wages of workers. Therefore, it is necessary to attach importance on it and add these contents in Quick Check to raise the awareness of all relevant parties regarding the basic treatments towards workers.
Part A: Living conditions
The Quick Check has mentioned quite a lot about working conditions and workforce safety. However, it does not include requirement on living conditions. In many cases in China, factories provide dormintories to labors where living conditions become key criterias to evaluate how employors treat their employees. Some existing guidelines or certifiable
standards have already included some detailed living condition criterias, such as the number of employees per dormitory, accommodation pricing, labors’ right to choose, etc. Some interviewees suggest the Quick Check include certain kinds of living condition standards.
Part A: Non-descrimination
In China, HBV, HIV, gender, marriage and residential permit descrimination frequently happen in recruitment process. Regarding HBV and HIV, many people have misunderstands and are afraid to work with HBV/HIV infected workmates. Therefore, infected persons are difficult to find a job. In addition, a huge amount of population, almost one from ten, are infected by HBV in China, which makes HBV discrimination a social crisis.
Gender and marriage descrimination are illegal in China according to labor law. However, many employors just do not have it in their mind, and in many cases, they will add some potentially descrimination terms to their job post which they have not noticed at all. Their awareness needs to be built to avoid such descrimination behavior.
Residential permit is a special document indicating where you live and work. When you move to another area where you don’t have residential permits, worklife would become very inconvenient. You might be refused by several local employors, and your family might not be able to share some social benefits as local citizens. Most migrant workers in China face those challenges when working in a factory far from their hometown.
Therefore, HBV/HIV, gender, marriage, and residential permit descrimination are especially important to Chinese employees. We suggest that the Quick Check specifically address these challenges, in particular about HBV and residential permit. In China, this has been clearly stated in the newly released law ”Employment Promotion Law”.
Part B: Corruption and bribery
Corruption and bribery are important indicators related to corporate human right issues. However, several interviewees feel it strange to include these indicators as part
of ”Community Impact”. In China, corruption and briberty not only happen in community level. Therefore, it might be separated from ”Comminity Impact” and become a separated section of the Quick Check. Otherwise, the Quick Check has to make it clear about (1) why and how corruption would impact community, and (2) what is the connection between such impact and human right violation.
Part C: Supply chain management
Supply chain management is extremely important in corporate human right issues. The Quick
Check only includes eight indicators to describe relations with suppliers, contractors and other associates, which is not sufficient enough. Considering its importance particularly to a country like China who has large manufacturing companies, we suggest the Quick Check consider below indicators: whether companies have a set of standards to evaluate their
suppliers from the perspective of CSR; whether such standards or systems can enable both buyers and suppliers to continously improve their performance; whether buyers establish special position and hire specialist to manage CSR risks in supply chain; how buyers communicate this message with suppliers and support suppliers to make progress.
Others: fair competition and fair trade
As an ethical company, one should obey the rule of fair competition and fair trade. Fair competition is a challenging issue in China due to (1) large presence of state-owned molopolies and (2) weak regulation environment where some bad companies are not punished. Special attentions should be given to state-owned molopolies in the Quick Check. These molopoly companies grab high profit margins from the market, and impede
other competitors, which will end up in public interest damage. Therefore, it is suggested that the Quick Check consider fair competition issues for its China edition.
Fair trade is increasingly important when China becomes more involved in international trade business. Large commodity (sugar, palm oil, etc) importers have to consider fair trade. But these issues have not been included in the Quick Check yet.
2.3. Content presentation and description
The description is long and a bit dry
The content description usually is very long, containing some special terminologies that are not easily understood by Chinese readers. Therefore, it would be better if we can:
- shorten the description and make it more precise
- use more locally understood language and terminlogies
- provide footnote explanation to some special terms
- provide business case or stories to explain indicators
In addition, some interviewees suggest the Quick Check illustrate some related pictures to make the manual more attractive and interesting.
Translation uses long sentences
As for the translation of the quick check, most of the content are well-presented and easy to understand, except for some long sentences which can be broken into short ones to make it more favorable for Chinese readers and the self-check process more efficient.
For instance:
A6.3: 一般来讲，最低工资由国家法律规定，但许多地方几十年的最低工资一直都没有 调整过，不管有无通货膨胀，这样的最低工资也因太低而不能保证基本生活。
can be modified as: 一般来讲，最低工资由国家法律规定。但是，不管有无通货膨胀，许多地方的最低工资几十年一直都没有变过。这样的最低工资因为标准太低而不能保证基本生活。
B2.1: 本地人可能缺乏相关文件证明其对土地的所有权，以及/或者他人可能持有非法
的、有冲突性的对同一土地的所有权证明，但根据殖民时期、后殖民时期的条约，或当 地的传统法律，他们仍拥有这块土地，或拥有土地的使用权。
can be modified as: 本地人可能缺乏相关文件证明其对土地的所有权，而且/或者其他人 可能会通过非法途径获得对该土地的权属证明。但是，根据殖民时期、后殖民时期的条约，或当地传统法律，本地人仍拥有这块土地的所有权或使用权。
Open answer should be acceptable
The Quick Check now offers five options (True, False, F/A, N/A and No Info) for companies to select. However, one social auditor said that in some cases, companies will just simply refuse or be reluctant to say ”NO” or ”False” even if they know they are far from the criteria or standard. This is because either ”NO” or ”False” means negative impact to companies. Therefore, the Quick Check might allow companies to provide ”open answer” besides those five opitions. From these open answers, we might be able to tell how companies improve their performance and evolute from unqualified companies to good companies.
Electronic version Quick Check would be useful
A printed copy of the Quick Check might not be vey convenient for companies to ”check” all indicators, hence will make the Quick Check less attractive. Therefore, it would be useful if the Quick Check can provide an electronic version so that companies can answer the questions in PC or even online. Such process would can be more interactive.
Other comments
Below are some small comments on the Quick Check comments, mostly about writing and spelling error.
- PDF file Page 27, A.6.3. #3”如果没有的国家最低工资标准” should be ”如果没有国家最低工资标准”
- PDF file Page 29, A6.5 #6 indicator is no content
- PDF file Page 33, B2.2 #3 ”迁居合力” should be ”迁居合理”
3. Urgency and applicability of indicators
Below is the result of survey on urgency and applicability of indicators among interviewees.
Contents
Urgency
Applicability
A Employment Practices
1.Forced Labor
√√√√√√
√√√√√√√
2.Child Labor
and Young Workers
√√√√√optional
√√√√√√
3.Non-Discrimination
√√√√√√√
√√√√√√
4.Freedom of Association
√√√√√
√√√√√√√×
5.Workplace Health and Safety
√√√√√√√
√√√√√√√√
6.Conditions of Employment
and Work
√√√√√√√
√√√√√√√√
B Community Impact
1.Security
√√√√
√√√√√
2.Land Management
√√√
√√√√√×
3.Environmental Health
and Safety
√√√√√
√√√√√√
4.Corruption and Bribery
√√√optional
√√√√√√
5.Company Products
√√√√
√√√√√
C Supply Chain Management
1.Relations with suppliers etc.
√√√×
√√√√√√×
(√= Yes, ×= No, Optional= dependence on conditions, Number of interviewees = 11)
Most urgent indicators
In general, indicators in Part A, i.e. employment practices is more urgent than other indicators of community impact and supply chain management.This reflects that labor standards in factory levels in China are still quite low though the government has set up a high standard legal system.
Based on the results of survey, the most selected urgent issues are A3, A5 and A6, namely Non-Discrimination, Workplace Health and Safety, and Conditions of Employment and Work. That means these are the areas where we should watch closely. B2 (Land Management), B4 (Corruption and Bribery) are the least urgent indicators.
Most applicable indicators
It is safe to say all the indicators are applicable for chinese companies, among which A5 and A6 (Workplace Health and Safety, and Conditions of Employment and Work) are the most applicable ones. This is in line with indicators with most urgency.
There are two indicators particularly arguable. The first one is freedom of association. Some said this is not appliable to Chinese context as Chinese government only recognizes one single trade union, i.e. All China Federation of Trade Union. In China, companies are encouraged to establish trade unions, but these unions have to be part of the ACFTU. Otherwise, they would be illegal. This situation makes many indicators in A4 (freedom of association) non-appliable.
The second one is land management. In China, land in city is owned by the government while land in rural area is collectively owned. This reality makes some indicators
non-applicable. However, many said that land management is and would be an increasingly important issues in China related to corporate social responsibility. First, more lands are by the real estate companies to build new apartments, which drives some poor people away from home. Second, economic development and factory buildings also occupy huge areas in urban and rural areas. The negative outcome would be: farmers lose their farmlands and local ecologic environment is destroyed. In both cases, companies as well as governments should take part of responsibilities. Therefore, land management indicators would be very crucial especially for real estate, agricultural, and hydropower companies. But the indicators need to be localized and tailored to Chinese reality.
4. Quick Check promotion in China
4.1. Changing the title “Human Rights”
Human rights in China is typically understood as a political term, which describes the realtionship between a regime and individuals. Therefore, it would be very sensitive to promote a ”human rights” tool to China and Chinese companies. Apparently, many Chinese companies would hesitate to talk about human rights in China.
As a result, we suggest the Quick Check use a more friendly title, such as:
- CSR Comliance Assessment Quick Check
- Corproate Citizenship Compliance Assessment Quick Check
- Business Ethics Compliance Assessment Quick Check
- Labor and Environment Compliance Assessment Quick Check
4.2. Driving the companies: pressures and incentives
When applying this Quick Check to companies in China, we have to be clear about the driving forces behind. Otherwise, no company would like to use this Quick Check.
Driving forces can have two types: pressures or incentives. If a company is asked by its global buyer to use this Quick Check as a self-examination tool, this company would feel a pressure and want to use this Quick Check. Otherwise, the company has to find the Quick Check useful to increase their management efficiency (such as lower worker turnover rate),
or reduce their operation risks (such as better community relationship), then they would see the incentives to apply this Quick Check.
Consequently, we have to select the right targeted groups who would face pressures or might have potential incentives. Below groups might be considerable:
- Local suppliers who sell their products to global brand. These suppliers might face pressures to improve their human right performance.
- Branches of large multinational companies. These companies have to make sure their labor standards are universally the same, and will ask their branch companies in China to improve their performance.
- Large Chinese companies with overseas operation. These companies need to operate their business in US, Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia with high human right standards so as to avoid any potential risks. These are pretty new challenges to them, and therefore they would be interested in learning new tool.
Some interviewees suggest to promote the Quick Check together with the governments or through market channel. We see these two ways less possible, because (1) Chinese government would not like to officially promote a human right quick check, and (2) the Quick Check is designed as a self-diagnose tool, other than a certifiable standard.
4.3. Building capacity
According to our seminar with labor experts and CSR practitioners (meeting minute in attached), it takes time to really integrate this tool to factories, and in many cases, factory level managers would not have the skills and knowledge to apply this Quick Check, particularly to improve their performance using this Quick Check. Therefore, it makes sense to select capable pilot factories and design a relatively long term training program to build up their management capacity.
4.4. Marketing as a self-diagnose tool
When we interviewed labor experts, they often misunderstood our purpose, and thought we were going to market a certifiable standards for profits. These first impression will depress some people, and they would have no interest to read this Quick Check, as there have been several standards and guidelines in the market, and monitoring and auditing alone could not solve human right issues in companies.
Thererfore, we need to make it clear that this Quick Check is a self-diagnose tool for free, and with the purpose of protecting labor interest. We had better put such message on the cover of this Quick Check, in orde to get it clear at the very beginning before readers are confused. This will increase the acceptance possibility from factories.
If we can send this Quick Check hard copy together with a PC disc which allows users to check their performance in computer, it may attract more attentions.
5. Recommendations
In conclusion, the Quick Check should be improved in terms of title, contents, descriptions, marketing solutions:
Title:
(1). Avoid using ”Human Rights” in title, suggest use ”CSR Compliance Assessment
Quick Check”.
(2). Indicate clearly on the cover page that this is a self-diagnose tool for free, not a certifable standards for profits. May also mention that this Quick Check has been adopted by some well known companies such as Shell International.
Contents:
(3). Add contents of working hour management, overtime payment, living conditions, HBV/gender/marriage/residential permit discrimination, .
(4). Localize contents of freedom of association, land management and fair trade.
(5). Use Chinese government accepted international conventions, and add Chinese laws and regulations as the fundamental base of indicators.
Descriptions:
(6). Shorten the Quick Check and further elaborate translations. (7). Use local understood language and terms.
(8). Add business cases or photos to make the Quick Check more user friendly.
Marketing solutions:
(9). Market the Quick Check as a self-diagnose tool, and select the right target groups, i.e. contracted suppliers of reputational brand, China units of multinational companies, and large Chinese companies with overseas operation.
(10). Need to provide capacity building services to factories when apply this Quick
Check to them.
Annexes
Annex -1 Recommendations in Chinese Language
《人权遵守状况评估速查手册》咨询报告主要结论 经访谈、研讨和综合分析，我们对速查手册在中国的本土化和应用，分别从题目、内容、
描述和推广方面提出如下若干意见：
标题：
(1). 避免使用“人权”二字，建议使用“企业社会责任状况评估速查手册”。 (2). 在速查手册的封面中明确标出此速查手册是一个可供企业免费使用的自我诊 断工具，不会用于认证和盈利；同时可以提到国际上使用此工具的知名企业，如壳 牌国际等。
内容：
(3). 需要增加的内容：工作时间管理、超时加班工资、员工住宿条件、乙肝歧视、 户籍歧视、性别歧视、婚姻状况歧视等。
(4). 需要根据本土实际修订的内容：自由结社、土地管理、公平竞争。
(5). 只应用那些中国政府已经签署的国际公约，并且将中国的一些相关法律法规也作为设计指标的原则和依据。
描述：
(6). 缩短内容，精炼语句。
(7). 使用中国企业容易看得懂的术语和叙述方式。
(8). 可以适当加入一些商业案例、插图等，让手册看起来内容丰富，具吸引力。
推广:
(9). 将速查手册作为自我诊断工具进行推广，并且选择合适的推广对象：即为国际 知名品牌供货的供应商、跨国公司在华企业、跨国经营的大型中国企业。
(10). 将速查手册介绍给企业应用时，需要配备能力建设培训服务。
Annex -2 List of interviewees
Name
Title
Institution/Company
1.
Liang Xiaohui
Chief Researcher
CSR office of CNTAC
2.
Zhang Xubiao
China Program Officer
ILO
3.
He Zhizhang
Co-founder
CSR Association
4.
Wang Yingyu
Project manager
Oxfam HK (Beijing Office)
5.
Dai Desheng
Vice Principal, School of
Law
Nanjing University of Finance and Economics
6.
Liu Jun
Lecturer
East China Univ. of Political science and Law
7.
Wu Qing
Professor
Beijing Foreign Studies University
8.
Zhang Linghui
General Manager
Timeline Consultancy
9.
Zhang Xingrong
Social auditor
Jingdian Consulting Firm
10.
Yang Jing
Social auditor
N.A. (consulting firm)
11.
Gao Musheng
CSR Manager
N.A. (a UK apparel company)
Annex -3 Meeting minute for Labor Compliance Assessment Seminar
Date and Time: 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm on Thursday (May 29th) afternoon
Place: Nike Beijing Office (Twin Towers, West Tower, 7th Fl. 12-B Jianguomenwai Ave.) Recorder: Guo Peiyuan Email: guopeiyuan@syntao.com
Participants: Moderator: Guo Peiyuan, SynTao
Experts: Kelly Lau, NIKE China
Ge Youli, FLA China
Others: Tiziana Tota, DIHR Wu Aoqi, TSE
Chen Lixian, SynTao
Meeting Minute:
// All statements below are individual opinions, and should not be considered as a formal announcement of any organizations.
„ General framework
- The HRCA Quick Check is a comprehensive framework for corporate human right issues, covering most of the relevant topics and these topics are well organized.
- The Quick Check provides business with a general framework which is universal for all
most all sectors without any sectoral bias.
- The Quick Check is developed according to many international conventions and global standards, and therefore, is very much in line with some western CSR concepts.
- The Quick Check is a “BIG” Check, and probably too long for people to read and use it.
„ Ultimate goal of this Quick Check
- From a hard copy of the Quick Check, readers cannot tell whether it is a toolkit, or a voluntary guideline, or a mandatory standard. Some people might misunderstand that this is a mandatory standard aiming to create a certificate and auditing market. In that case, people, particularly business people and government officials may avoid using such tool and hesitate to talk about this.
- Ideally, the Quick Check should be a voluntary-basis self-help handbook that provides vision and methodology/framework to forward-looking business leaders in China.
„ Incentives and pressures
- Why companies or factories want to or agree to use this Quick Check? This question reminds us to think about the driving forces that push Quick Check in China.
- Driving forces consist of two types: one is incentives that tell businesses that they can benefit from applying the Quick Check to their business; another is pressures, i.e. if they don’t use this Quick Check, they would be in trouble. Therefore, to encourage others to use this Quick Check, incentives or/and pressures are very critical.
„ Contents and language
- Most contents of this Quick Check are developed according to universal conventions, standards and guidelines, which actually are quite high-level and widely recognized. This will lead to two problems: (1). companies might find such standards too high to obey, and hesitate to use this Quick Check; (2). some conventions, standards and guidelines might be far from the knowledge of Chinese readers. The Quick Check needs to explain and tell people about that.
- Human Right is something sensitive under Chinese context, therefore the Quick Check might use some other alternatives to replace Human Rights
- Business cases are more convincing than description. Therefore, the Quick Check may include some best practices by Chinese businesses in order to (1) attract enterprises’ attentions to this Quick Check and (2) tell businessmen how to realize win-win solution on human right compliance.
- It is also important to tell Chinese people which companies are endorsing this Quick
Check and how they benefit from using it.
„ Looking forward
- Target groups. Considering incentives and driving forces, the Quick Check should focus on two groups of targeted companies. The first group is companies whose clients are
multinational companies, particularly Danish companies. The second group is large Chinese companies that have global operations and want to reduce their human right risks emerging from Southern Asia and Africa markets.
- Capacity building. The Quick Check may raise business awareness on human right compliance. However, to implement, factories have to get training and other supports to build their capacity. Otherwise, the Quick Check would be less useful.
- Long term planning. Due to differences of development stages, Chinese companies may need several years to adapt to global CSR trend. That says, the Quick Check should have long term plan which should last for several years as well.
„ How to measure project success
- As a project, we must have some sort of criteria to measure its success, i.e. how to measure “to what degree Chinese companies accept this Quick Check”.
Human Rights Compliance Assessment Quick Check
How to make the Quick Check
Adaptive to China’s Reality
by
CHEN Lixian & GUO Peiyuan
(Correspondent: guopeiyuan@syntao.com)
SynTao Co. Ltd. June 24th, 2008
How to make the Quick Check Adaptive to China’s Reality
Consultation Report on
Human Rights Compliance Assessment Quick Check
Content Outlines
1. Labor compliance assessment in China
1.1. Certificate and standards: history and status quo
1.2. Are Chinese companies ready?
2. Comments on HRCA Quick Check contents
2.1. Based principles
2.2. Content structure and details
2.3. Content presentation and description
3. Urgency and applicability of indicators
4. Quick Check promotion in China
4.1. Changing the title “Human Rights”
4.2. Driving the companies: pressures and incentives
4.3. Building capacity
4.4. Marketing as a self-diagnose tool
5. Recommendations
Annexes
Annex -1 Recommendations in Chinese language
Annex -2 List of interviewees
Annex -3 Meeting minute for Labor Compliance Assessment Seminar
1. Labor compliance assessment in China
1.1. Certificate and standards: history and status quo
Social and environmental standards have been introduced to China and applied to Chinese factories since middle 1990s. Nowadays, there are several widely accepted guidelines, standards existing in China, such as:
- SA8000, a certifiable standard developed by Social Accountability International
- FLA workplace code of conduct, developed by Fair Labor Association
- Apparel Certification Program Principles, developed by WRAP
- Electronic Industry Code of Conduct, developed by EICC
- CSC9000T, a Chinese guideline developed by CNTAC
A company might need to ask a third party auditor to conduct social auditing to get a certificate for above mentioned standards/guidelines, such as SA8000. Large companies, for instance Nike and Addidas, have developed their own code of conducts and conducted social autiding by themseleves.
Chinese government, particularly the Ministry of Commerce, used to be afraid that social auditing might harm the itnernational trade competitiveness of Chinese companies, hence did not support social auditing and even CSR in early 2000s. This has not been changed very much though the Ministry of Commerce announced that CSR was good for trade competitiveness in 2006. The government supports management guidelines like CSC9000T, but discourages certifiable and compulsory standards.
1.2. Are Chinese companies ready?
CSR has become an unprecedented popular concept in China in recent years, and many Chinese businessmen, particularly those from east coast areas, should have heard about CSR and relevant stories. Most exporting companies have already felt great pressure from their global buyers. Therefore, in terms of awareness, these Chinese companies are generally ready to buy-in CSR and labor compliance concepts.
However, know-how is still lagging behind among many Chinese companies. Business managers realize that they do not have adequate knowledge and skills to handle labor issues in factories. As a consequence, improving labor standards result in higher labor costs, without efficiency increase in some cases, which makes no incentive for managers. This is the reason why some organizations like ILO and CNTAC are working on factory capacity building, rather than social auditing.
Government policies and enforcements are also impacting corporate behaviors. Laws and regulations are well written on paper, but poor in implementation. This reduces risks for bad companies, and lesses incentives for good companies. Such environment is not good for the development of guidelines and standards.
2. Comments on HRCA Quick Check contents
2.1. Based principles
All indicators in the Quick Check are designed on the base of some unversal principles and intenrational conventions related to labor, environment and human right issues. However, Chinese government has not signed all conventions mentioned in this Quick Check. For instance, China has not signed ”CONVENTION No. 87 Convention concerning Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize”. This will make some companies using this Quick Check exposed to some political risks.
At the same time, there are also some Chinese laws and regulations concerning corprorate human right issues, such as Labor Law, and Labor Contract Law, etc. Ideally, these should join those international conventions to form the base of this Quick Check.
2.2. Content structure and details
Generally, the overall structure of the Quick Check is logical and similar with other existing guidelines. It has comprehensively covered various topics related to corporate human right issues, such as forced labor, underage workers, working conditions, community impacts, etc.
However, there are still some important contents missing and some are not sufficient enough for Chinese companies.
Part A: working hour management and overtime payment
Contents of working-hour management, salary and payment, overtime payment and compensations are strongly recommended to add in section A. In the past few years,
China has seen a number of labor disputes, most of which are on overtime work and payment, as well as salary and welfare issues. Delay payment and overtime work are so prevalent in China that they are often ignored by the society. Many of the factory workers are migrant workers who don’t have the knowlege of labor standards and have low demands on payment and other benefits. Meanwhile, the labor market is highly competitive with overpopulated labors. Workers thus have to accept low-level treatments offered by employees. Some
labor-intensive enterprises such as companies of garment, toy, furniture and electronics lower the prices of products by reducing wages of workers. Therefore, it is necessary to attach importance on it and add these contents in Quick Check to raise the awareness of all relevant parties regarding the basic treatments towards workers.
Part A: Living conditions
The Quick Check has mentioned quite a lot about working conditions and workforce safety. However, it does not include requirement on living conditions. In many cases in China, factories provide dormintories to labors where living conditions become key criterias to evaluate how employors treat their employees. Some existing guidelines or certifiable
standards have already included some detailed living condition criterias, such as the number of employees per dormitory, accommodation pricing, labors’ right to choose, etc. Some interviewees suggest the Quick Check include certain kinds of living condition standards.
Part A: Non-descrimination
In China, HBV, HIV, gender, marriage and residential permit descrimination frequently happen in recruitment process. Regarding HBV and HIV, many people have misunderstands and are afraid to work with HBV/HIV infected workmates. Therefore, infected persons are difficult to find a job. In addition, a huge amount of population, almost one from ten, are infected by HBV in China, which makes HBV discrimination a social crisis.
Gender and marriage descrimination are illegal in China according to labor law. However, many employors just do not have it in their mind, and in many cases, they will add some potentially descrimination terms to their job post which they have not noticed at all. Their awareness needs to be built to avoid such descrimination behavior.
Residential permit is a special document indicating where you live and work. When you move to another area where you don’t have residential permits, worklife would become very inconvenient. You might be refused by several local employors, and your family might not be able to share some social benefits as local citizens. Most migrant workers in China face those challenges when working in a factory far from their hometown.
Therefore, HBV/HIV, gender, marriage, and residential permit descrimination are especially important to Chinese employees. We suggest that the Quick Check specifically address these challenges, in particular about HBV and residential permit. In China, this has been clearly stated in the newly released law ”Employment Promotion Law”.
Part B: Corruption and bribery
Corruption and bribery are important indicators related to corporate human right issues. However, several interviewees feel it strange to include these indicators as part
of ”Community Impact”. In China, corruption and briberty not only happen in community level. Therefore, it might be separated from ”Comminity Impact” and become a separated section of the Quick Check. Otherwise, the Quick Check has to make it clear about (1) why and how corruption would impact community, and (2) what is the connection between such impact and human right violation.
Part C: Supply chain management
Supply chain management is extremely important in corporate human right issues. The Quick
Check only includes eight indicators to describe relations with suppliers, contractors and other associates, which is not sufficient enough. Considering its importance particularly to a country like China who has large manufacturing companies, we suggest the Quick Check consider below indicators: whether companies have a set of standards to evaluate their
suppliers from the perspective of CSR; whether such standards or systems can enable both buyers and suppliers to continously improve their performance; whether buyers establish special position and hire specialist to manage CSR risks in supply chain; how buyers communicate this message with suppliers and support suppliers to make progress.
Others: fair competition and fair trade
As an ethical company, one should obey the rule of fair competition and fair trade. Fair competition is a challenging issue in China due to (1) large presence of state-owned molopolies and (2) weak regulation environment where some bad companies are not punished. Special attentions should be given to state-owned molopolies in the Quick Check. These molopoly companies grab high profit margins from the market, and impede
other competitors, which will end up in public interest damage. Therefore, it is suggested that the Quick Check consider fair competition issues for its China edition.
Fair trade is increasingly important when China becomes more involved in international trade business. Large commodity (sugar, palm oil, etc) importers have to consider fair trade. But these issues have not been included in the Quick Check yet.
2.3. Content presentation and description
The description is long and a bit dry
The content description usually is very long, containing some special terminologies that are not easily understood by Chinese readers. Therefore, it would be better if we can:
- shorten the description and make it more precise
- use more locally understood language and terminlogies
- provide footnote explanation to some special terms
- provide business case or stories to explain indicators
In addition, some interviewees suggest the Quick Check illustrate some related pictures to make the manual more attractive and interesting.
Translation uses long sentences
As for the translation of the quick check, most of the content are well-presented and easy to understand, except for some long sentences which can be broken into short ones to make it more favorable for Chinese readers and the self-check process more efficient.
For instance:
A6.3: 一般来讲，最低工资由国家法律规定，但许多地方几十年的最低工资一直都没有 调整过，不管有无通货膨胀，这样的最低工资也因太低而不能保证基本生活。
can be modified as: 一般来讲，最低工资由国家法律规定。但是，不管有无通货膨胀，许多地方的最低工资几十年一直都没有变过。这样的最低工资因为标准太低而不能保证基本生活。
B2.1: 本地人可能缺乏相关文件证明其对土地的所有权，以及/或者他人可能持有非法
的、有冲突性的对同一土地的所有权证明，但根据殖民时期、后殖民时期的条约，或当 地的传统法律，他们仍拥有这块土地，或拥有土地的使用权。
can be modified as: 本地人可能缺乏相关文件证明其对土地的所有权，而且/或者其他人 可能会通过非法途径获得对该土地的权属证明。但是，根据殖民时期、后殖民时期的条约，或当地传统法律，本地人仍拥有这块土地的所有权或使用权。
Open answer should be acceptable
The Quick Check now offers five options (True, False, F/A, N/A and No Info) for companies to select. However, one social auditor said that in some cases, companies will just simply refuse or be reluctant to say ”NO” or ”False” even if they know they are far from the criteria or standard. This is because either ”NO” or ”False” means negative impact to companies. Therefore, the Quick Check might allow companies to provide ”open answer” besides those five opitions. From these open answers, we might be able to tell how companies improve their performance and evolute from unqualified companies to good companies.
Electronic version Quick Check would be useful
A printed copy of the Quick Check might not be vey convenient for companies to ”check” all indicators, hence will make the Quick Check less attractive. Therefore, it would be useful if the Quick Check can provide an electronic version so that companies can answer the questions in PC or even online. Such process would can be more interactive.
Other comments
Below are some small comments on the Quick Check comments, mostly about writing and spelling error.
- PDF file Page 27, A.6.3. #3”如果没有的国家最低工资标准” should be ”如果没有国家最低工资标准”
- PDF file Page 29, A6.5 #6 indicator is no content
- PDF file Page 33, B2.2 #3 ”迁居合力” should be ”迁居合理”
3. Urgency and applicability of indicators
Below is the result of survey on urgency and applicability of indicators among interviewees.
Contents
Urgency
Applicability
A Employment Practices
1.Forced Labor
√√√√√√
√√√√√√√
2.Child Labor
and Young Workers
√√√√√optional
√√√√√√
3.Non-Discrimination
√√√√√√√
√√√√√√
4.Freedom of Association
√√√√√
√√√√√√√×
5.Workplace Health and Safety
√√√√√√√
√√√√√√√√
6.Conditions of Employment
and Work
√√√√√√√
√√√√√√√√
B Community Impact
1.Security
√√√√
√√√√√
2.Land Management
√√√
√√√√√×
3.Environmental Health
and Safety
√√√√√
√√√√√√
4.Corruption and Bribery
√√√optional
√√√√√√
5.Company Products
√√√√
√√√√√
C Supply Chain Management
1.Relations with suppliers etc.
√√√×
√√√√√√×
(√= Yes, ×= No, Optional= dependence on conditions, Number of interviewees = 11)
Most urgent indicators
In general, indicators in Part A, i.e. employment practices is more urgent than other indicators of community impact and supply chain management.This reflects that labor standards in factory levels in China are still quite low though the government has set up a high standard legal system.
Based on the results of survey, the most selected urgent issues are A3, A5 and A6, namely Non-Discrimination, Workplace Health and Safety, and Conditions of Employment and Work. That means these are the areas where we should watch closely. B2 (Land Management), B4 (Corruption and Bribery) are the least urgent indicators.
Most applicable indicators
It is safe to say all the indicators are applicable for chinese companies, among which A5 and A6 (Workplace Health and Safety, and Conditions of Employment and Work) are the most applicable ones. This is in line with indicators with most urgency.
There are two indicators particularly arguable. The first one is freedom of association. Some said this is not appliable to Chinese context as Chinese government only recognizes one single trade union, i.e. All China Federation of Trade Union. In China, companies are encouraged to establish trade unions, but these unions have to be part of the ACFTU. Otherwise, they would be illegal. This situation makes many indicators in A4 (freedom of association) non-appliable.
The second one is land management. In China, land in city is owned by the government while land in rural area is collectively owned. This reality makes some indicators
non-applicable. However, many said that land management is and would be an increasingly important issues in China related to corporate social responsibility. First, more lands are by the real estate companies to build new apartments, which drives some poor people away from home. Second, economic development and factory buildings also occupy huge areas in urban and rural areas. The negative outcome would be: farmers lose their farmlands and local ecologic environment is destroyed. In both cases, companies as well as governments should take part of responsibilities. Therefore, land management indicators would be very crucial especially for real estate, agricultural, and hydropower companies. But the indicators need to be localized and tailored to Chinese reality.
4. Quick Check promotion in China
4.1. Changing the title “Human Rights”
Human rights in China is typically understood as a political term, which describes the realtionship between a regime and individuals. Therefore, it would be very sensitive to promote a ”human rights” tool to China and Chinese companies. Apparently, many Chinese companies would hesitate to talk about human rights in China.
As a result, we suggest the Quick Check use a more friendly title, such as:
- CSR Comliance Assessment Quick Check
- Corproate Citizenship Compliance Assessment Quick Check
- Business Ethics Compliance Assessment Quick Check
- Labor and Environment Compliance Assessment Quick Check
4.2. Driving the companies: pressures and incentives
When applying this Quick Check to companies in China, we have to be clear about the driving forces behind. Otherwise, no company would like to use this Quick Check.
Driving forces can have two types: pressures or incentives. If a company is asked by its global buyer to use this Quick Check as a self-examination tool, this company would feel a pressure and want to use this Quick Check. Otherwise, the company has to find the Quick Check useful to increase their management efficiency (such as lower worker turnover rate),
or reduce their operation risks (such as better community relationship), then they would see the incentives to apply this Quick Check.
Consequently, we have to select the right targeted groups who would face pressures or might have potential incentives. Below groups might be considerable:
- Local suppliers who sell their products to global brand. These suppliers might face pressures to improve their human right performance.
- Branches of large multinational companies. These companies have to make sure their labor standards are universally the same, and will ask their branch companies in China to improve their performance.
- Large Chinese companies with overseas operation. These companies need to operate their business in US, Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia with high human right standards so as to avoid any potential risks. These are pretty new challenges to them, and therefore they would be interested in learning new tool.
Some interviewees suggest to promote the Quick Check together with the governments or through market channel. We see these two ways less possible, because (1) Chinese government would not like to officially promote a human right quick check, and (2) the Quick Check is designed as a self-diagnose tool, other than a certifiable standard.
4.3. Building capacity
According to our seminar with labor experts and CSR practitioners (meeting minute in attached), it takes time to really integrate this tool to factories, and in many cases, factory level managers would not have the skills and knowledge to apply this Quick Check, particularly to improve their performance using this Quick Check. Therefore, it makes sense to select capable pilot factories and design a relatively long term training program to build up their management capacity.
4.4. Marketing as a self-diagnose tool
When we interviewed labor experts, they often misunderstood our purpose, and thought we were going to market a certifiable standards for profits. These first impression will depress some people, and they would have no interest to read this Quick Check, as there have been several standards and guidelines in the market, and monitoring and auditing alone could not solve human right issues in companies.
Thererfore, we need to make it clear that this Quick Check is a self-diagnose tool for free, and with the purpose of protecting labor interest. We had better put such message on the cover of this Quick Check, in orde to get it clear at the very beginning before readers are confused. This will increase the acceptance possibility from factories.
If we can send this Quick Check hard copy together with a PC disc which allows users to check their performance in computer, it may attract more attentions.
5. Recommendations
In conclusion, the Quick Check should be improved in terms of title, contents, descriptions, marketing solutions:
Title:
(1). Avoid using ”Human Rights” in title, suggest use ”CSR Compliance Assessment
Quick Check”.
(2). Indicate clearly on the cover page that this is a self-diagnose tool for free, not a certifable standards for profits. May also mention that this Quick Check has been adopted by some well known companies such as Shell International.
Contents:
(3). Add contents of working hour management, overtime payment, living conditions, HBV/gender/marriage/residential permit discrimination, .
(4). Localize contents of freedom of association, land management and fair trade.
(5). Use Chinese government accepted international conventions, and add Chinese laws and regulations as the fundamental base of indicators.
Descriptions:
(6). Shorten the Quick Check and further elaborate translations. (7). Use local understood language and terms.
(8). Add business cases or photos to make the Quick Check more user friendly.
Marketing solutions:
(9). Market the Quick Check as a self-diagnose tool, and select the right target groups, i.e. contracted suppliers of reputational brand, China units of multinational companies, and large Chinese companies with overseas operation.
(10). Need to provide capacity building services to factories when apply this Quick
Check to them.
Annexes
Annex -1 Recommendations in Chinese Language
《人权遵守状况评估速查手册》咨询报告主要结论 经访谈、研讨和综合分析，我们对速查手册在中国的本土化和应用，分别从题目、内容、
描述和推广方面提出如下若干意见：
标题：
(1). 避免使用“人权”二字，建议使用“企业社会责任状况评估速查手册”。 (2). 在速查手册的封面中明确标出此速查手册是一个可供企业免费使用的自我诊 断工具，不会用于认证和盈利；同时可以提到国际上使用此工具的知名企业，如壳 牌国际等。
内容：
(3). 需要增加的内容：工作时间管理、超时加班工资、员工住宿条件、乙肝歧视、 户籍歧视、性别歧视、婚姻状况歧视等。
(4). 需要根据本土实际修订的内容：自由结社、土地管理、公平竞争。
(5). 只应用那些中国政府已经签署的国际公约，并且将中国的一些相关法律法规也作为设计指标的原则和依据。
描述：
(6). 缩短内容，精炼语句。
(7). 使用中国企业容易看得懂的术语和叙述方式。
(8). 可以适当加入一些商业案例、插图等，让手册看起来内容丰富，具吸引力。
推广:
(9). 将速查手册作为自我诊断工具进行推广，并且选择合适的推广对象：即为国际 知名品牌供货的供应商、跨国公司在华企业、跨国经营的大型中国企业。
(10). 将速查手册介绍给企业应用时，需要配备能力建设培训服务。
Annex -2 List of interviewees
Name
Title
Institution/Company
1.
Liang Xiaohui
Chief Researcher
CSR office of CNTAC
2.
Zhang Xubiao
China Program Officer
ILO
3.
He Zhizhang
Co-founder
CSR Association
4.
Wang Yingyu
Project manager
Oxfam HK (Beijing Office)
5.
Dai Desheng
Vice Principal, School of
Law
Nanjing University of Finance and Economics
6.
Liu Jun
Lecturer
East China Univ. of Political science and Law
7.
Wu Qing
Professor
Beijing Foreign Studies University
8.
Zhang Linghui
General Manager
Timeline Consultancy
9.
Zhang Xingrong
Social auditor
Jingdian Consulting Firm
10.
Yang Jing
Social auditor
N.A. (consulting firm)
11.
Gao Musheng
CSR Manager
N.A. (a UK apparel company)
Annex -3 Meeting minute for Labor Compliance Assessment Seminar
Date and Time: 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm on Thursday (May 29th) afternoon
Place: Nike Beijing Office (Twin Towers, West Tower, 7th Fl. 12-B Jianguomenwai Ave.) Recorder: Guo Peiyuan Email: guopeiyuan@syntao.com
Participants: Moderator: Guo Peiyuan, SynTao
Experts: Kelly Lau, NIKE China
Ge Youli, FLA China
Others: Tiziana Tota, DIHR Wu Aoqi, TSE
Chen Lixian, SynTao
Meeting Minute:
// All statements below are individual opinions, and should not be considered as a formal announcement of any organizations.
„ General framework
- The HRCA Quick Check is a comprehensive framework for corporate human right issues, covering most of the relevant topics and these topics are well organized.
- The Quick Check provides business with a general framework which is universal for all
most all sectors without any sectoral bias.
- The Quick Check is developed according to many international conventions and global standards, and therefore, is very much in line with some western CSR concepts.
- The Quick Check is a “BIG” Check, and probably too long for people to read and use it.
„ Ultimate goal of this Quick Check
- From a hard copy of the Quick Check, readers cannot tell whether it is a toolkit, or a voluntary guideline, or a mandatory standard. Some people might misunderstand that this is a mandatory standard aiming to create a certificate and auditing market. In that case, people, particularly business people and government officials may avoid using such tool and hesitate to talk about this.
- Ideally, the Quick Check should be a voluntary-basis self-help handbook that provides vision and methodology/framework to forward-looking business leaders in China.
„ Incentives and pressures
- Why companies or factories want to or agree to use this Quick Check? This question reminds us to think about the driving forces that push Quick Check in China.
- Driving forces consist of two types: one is incentives that tell businesses that they can benefit from applying the Quick Check to their business; another is pressures, i.e. if they don’t use this Quick Check, they would be in trouble. Therefore, to encourage others to use this Quick Check, incentives or/and pressures are very critical.
„ Contents and language
- Most contents of this Quick Check are developed according to universal conventions, standards and guidelines, which actually are quite high-level and widely recognized. This will lead to two problems: (1). companies might find such standards too high to obey, and hesitate to use this Quick Check; (2). some conventions, standards and guidelines might be far from the knowledge of Chinese readers. The Quick Check needs to explain and tell people about that.
- Human Right is something sensitive under Chinese context, therefore the Quick Check might use some other alternatives to replace Human Rights
- Business cases are more convincing than description. Therefore, the Quick Check may include some best practices by Chinese businesses in order to (1) attract enterprises’ attentions to this Quick Check and (2) tell businessmen how to realize win-win solution on human right compliance.
- It is also important to tell Chinese people which companies are endorsing this Quick
Check and how they benefit from using it.
„ Looking forward
- Target groups. Considering incentives and driving forces, the Quick Check should focus on two groups of targeted companies. The first group is companies whose clients are
multinational companies, particularly Danish companies. The second group is large Chinese companies that have global operations and want to reduce their human right risks emerging from Southern Asia and Africa markets.
- Capacity building. The Quick Check may raise business awareness on human right compliance. However, to implement, factories have to get training and other supports to build their capacity. Otherwise, the Quick Check would be less useful.
- Long term planning. Due to differences of development stages, Chinese companies may need several years to adapt to global CSR trend. That says, the Quick Check should have long term plan which should last for several years as well.
„ How to measure project success
- As a project, we must have some sort of criteria to measure its success, i.e. how to measure “to what degree Chinese companies accept this Quick Check”.
订阅：
博文 (Atom)