By Aaron Barbour
photo credit: Gene Hunt
Over the years how many companies have been exposed for their immoral and illegal supply chain practices? Why do they continue to forget about investigative journalism, trade unions and human rights /campaigning organisations?
Supply chains are often key to the success of a business; and as they become longer, with more links in the chain, there is the danger of increased ‘informal’ working and practices, for example, from not paying the national minimum wage, to not providing fair and safe working conditions.
Last night’s BBC Panorama programme, ‘Primark: On the Rack’, was an interesting expose of the informal goings-on in the company’s supply chain in
Companies should engage with all their suppliers to develop much better working practices (a policy is not good enough if it isn’t being followed day to day). This was one of the recommendations made in the programme, one which we have also been pushing for (see our reports: ‘Need not Greed’ and ‘Journeys to Formalisation’). This view was shared by the Ethical Trading Initiative who featured in the programme.
Supply chains are going to be particularly important for east
The companies involved in the construction of the coming 2012 Olympics, as we covered in our ‘Fool’s Gold’ report, must adopt best practices, as well as meet the legal requirements, in procurement and (sub-) contracts. They have to recognise the potential for informal practices and ensure they don’t happen. This needs to be backed up with a well organised system of inspection, monitoring and enforcement so that thousands of workers are not exploited.
*The title was inspired by a working paper from Social Compact based in
