Making what’s good for workers, work for business.
Amazon UK, the biggest UK online retailer, has attracted criticism this week for the poor working conditions in one of its 4 UK fulfilment centres. The article in the Sunday Times claimed that workers were penalised for taking time off when sick, were forced to work overtime shifts and were set unreasonable performance targets. [...]
The European Union has been debating revisions to the current Working Time Directive throughout the course of 2008. The main cause of contention has been the ability of member states to allow their workers to voluntarily ‘opt-out’ of the requirements of the Directive, therefore being able to work more than 48 hours per week. [...]
The Global Social Compliance Programme (GSCP) – a partnership of some of the world’s biggest companies – has today launched their new reference code. The launch is intended to coincide with the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The partnership includes multinational retailers and brands such as Carrefour, Hasbro, Ikea, Hewlett-Packard, [...]
Participatory Audits: A new approach to auditing – increasingly in demand?
For some years now, companies, NGOs and trade unions working within ethical trade have been concerned that traditional auditing is: at best – easy to fake, at worst – a flawed approach.
Recently, some of Impactt’s clients have developed an interest in pushing the involvement of worker and workers’ organisations further by [...]
Today marks the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the culmination of a number of conferences, campaigns and reports released to celebrate the landmark mechanism.
The Declaration represents the fundamental rights to which all people, children and workers are entitled, and the cornerstone in a series of international law mechanisms to [...]
NHS PASA publish ‘Ethical Procurement for Health’ to develop ethical trade for health supplies
Impactt has been working with the NHS Purchasing and Supply Agency (PASA) and the Ethical Trading Initiative to develop guidance for NHS procurers to support the development of ethical trade policies for their individual trusts and organisations. The Guidance, entitled ‘Ethical Procurement for Health’, was launched for consultation yesterday (8th December), with the aim [...]
Asda, Tesco and Primark were plunged into the headlines again this week, as War on Want released a controversial report into the labour standards of some retailers’ Bangladeshi suppliers. The report, Fashion Victims II, is based on War on Want’s visit to 6 undisclosed factories in Bangladesh and involved speaking to 115 workers and [...]
Local Resources Network launch
A new network to promote good working practices in developing countries will be launched today, 4th December, at the Ethical Trade Initiative Food Group meeting.
The Local Resources Network is an online community for organisations working to improve employment conditions in factories, on farms and in work sites worldwide. The network is intended to link [...]