Wal-Mart suppliers charged with worker abuse

SUPPLIER AUDIT         LABOUR           HUMAN RESOURCES

China - Wal-Mart's everyday low prices motto may have a hand in its China suppliers being accused of making their staff endure "illegal and degrading conditions", a new labour report said.

Workers making shoes, Christmas lights, tools, curtains and paper boxes were found working in conditions that violate the retailer's "basic" standards, said New York-based China Labour Watch, after a probe.

The company said none of the five Wal-Mart supplier factory audits it investigated implemented the retailer's basic standards "and a total of 10,000 workers included in the report suffer serious rights abuses".

CLW said workers at two factories - Shenzhen Huasheng Packaging Company and Gantai Shoe factory - earned most of their income by working extra hours. Should the workers not fulfil overtime, they will only get the local minimum salary. In Shenzhen Huasheng, some workers are paid only RMB2.5 per hour, and in peak periods are asked to work upwards of 77 hours a week.

"Worst of all, two of the factories have rules forcing workers to lie to Wal-Mart auditors, forcing workers into silence as Wal-Mart turns a blind eye to sweatshop conditions," the report said.

Wal-Mart has been in the limelight for rights abuses relating to its workers in China, where it procures billions of dollars worth of goods.

"This is not about a single factory, but about Wal-Mart's inability to implement its standards," said CL executive director Li Qiang.

The company attributed the failure to "ineffective auditing and a pricing structure that forces factories to sell goods at unsustainable prices".

CLW highlighted that a company with a massive size and scale like Wal-Mart has a duty to implement basic standards for its workers.

"It has the size and power to be an industry leader, and this will not come from Ethical Standards Programme initiatives alone but also from major change to Wal-Mart's corporate practices, including increased investment in the audit system and careful review of purchasing practices.

"The case of Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, shows that corporate codes of conduct and factory auditing are not enough by themselves to strengthen workers' rights if corporations are unwilling to pay the real price it costs to produce a product according to the standards in their codes."

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