73It is suggested that students review the individual codes
and compare the standards put forward by each. The
instructor may consider facilitating the construction of a
comparative table to identify the commonalities of these
supply chain codes.
Questions that should be answered during the exercise
include:
- What elements do most of these codes share in
common? (i.e. no child labor, no forced labor, minimum
wages, limit on overtime hours, etc.) - Which code allows the youngest age of worker?
What age is that? Is that age based on an international
standard? - Which code allows the highest number of work hours?
How many do not specify the limit but defer to
local laws? - Did some clauses stand out when compared to other
codes? If so, which ones? Why did these stand out? - What are the apparent strengths and weaknesses of
these codes?
Estimated time for session: 60-90 minutes
recommended pre-assignment reading material includes:
Jackson, R. (2003) ‘Codes of Conduct for Business Partners’,
United Kingdom: Ethical Corporation Magazine. http://www.
ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=358
Supplementary reading materials include:
Mamic, I., ‘Managing Global Supply Chain: The Sports Footwear,
Apparel and Retail Sectors’. Journal of Business Ethics, Volume
59, Numbers 1-2, June 2005, pp. 81-100(20).
c. IntroductIon to MultI-staKEholdEr InItIatIVEs
The next step in the learning module is to review the types
of initiatives buying companies may undertake to address
the critical issue of working conditions in the supply chain.
This will consist of a group work exercise to investigate and
report on different global and regional multi-stakeholder
initiatives, identifying examples of activities these initiatives
have undertaken to address poor working conditions. In
this case, multi-stakeholder initiatives refer to projects or
programs that “bring together various stakeholders to address
specific issues [such as] monitoring and verifying compliance
with a code of conduct.”^2
The recommended format of the session is to organize
students into groups and assign each group an initiative to
research and profile. This can be done either in time spent
outside the classroom or by providing handouts in the class
on the initiatives for the students to review and discuss
in their groups. However, instructors can also choose to
provide an overview of these initiatives in lecture style if
more appropriate to course schedule.Suggested initiatives for review include the following:- Ethical Trading Initiative. A United Kingdom based
initiative comprised of companies, trade unions and
NGOs working in collaboration to promote and improve
the implementation of corporate codes of practice which
cover supply chain working conditions. An overview
of past pilot projects can be found at http://www.
ethicaltrade.org/Z/lib/annrep/2000/publ/index.shtml - Fair Labor Association. A United States based
organization that hires and accredits third parties to
monitor factories against the FLA’s code of conduct
with participation from many of the sport apparel and
footwear brands, major retailers, and university licensees.
A recent annual report contains a summary of the
monitors’ findings and descriptions of some pilot projects
that are ongoing in this association, pages 29-31, http://
http://www.fairlabor.org/all/2006PublicReport.pdf - JO-IN. A joint initiative of several multi-stakeholder
groups, this pilot project focused specifically on improving
working conditions in Turkey. http://www.jo-in.org/english/
trprojesi.asp - MFA Forum. This forum focuses on promoting good
labor practices in countries that are seen as less
competitive following the end of the multi-fiber
agreement trading regime. http://www.mfa-forum.net/
(^2) Clean Clothes Campaign. Short overview of multi-stakeholder initiatives aimed at
overseeing code implementation: http://www.cleanclothes.org/codes/code
BusInEss