![]() The pressure to drive down costs by limiting the time available for audits undercuts auditors’ ability to interview workers offsite in safe settings, follow information leads, and corroborate information.īrent W., an auditing industry expert with decades of experience conducting and overseeing social audits, said that, “If one auditing firm spends three days when another auditing firm will take half a day or one day and that’s cheaper, then where are the incentives for a supplier to choose an auditing firm that will do more work and cost more?” He contrasted the quality of social audits that last a few days with other tailored in-depth investigations that are more expensive, and rarely deployed when complaints about working conditions make frontpage news. Pricing and Other Business PressuresĪccording to auditors Human Rights Watch interviewed, the time allocated to conduct an audit directly impacts its quality. The report builds on other publications of civil society organizations and academics. It draws on the experiences and insights of 20 current or former experienced auditors, many of whom had spent over a decade conducting social audits of suppliers across numerous countries and different sectors including apparel 23 industry experts from the apparel industry interviews with workers and worker advocates an analysis of social audit reports and other academic analyses of social audit reports. This report highlights the challenges associated with social audits and certifications as they apply to manufacturing facilities or factories around the world, focusing on labor abuses in factories. Companies may seek to use social audits and certifications as part of their efforts to demonstrate compliance with such laws, but the social audit and certification process is riddled with conflicts of interest, loopholes, and other problems that render it an inadequate tool to ensure respect for human rights and environmental standards. As these countries consider how best to regulate companies, they should closely scrutinize the way social audits and certifications have worked. In the last few years, there has been a growing call within the European Union and elsewhere for laws regulating how companies respect human rights and environmental standards in their own operations and their global supply chains. While the precise revenues generated by the social audits and certification industry is difficult to assess, the auditing industry itself estimates it at least at US$300 million annually. In theory, these social audits or certifications are supposed to supplement inspections by governments in countries where the goods are being manufactured. These voluntary codes of conduct, either created by brands or other third parties like multistakeholder initiatives, or auditing or certification programs, incorporate international labor rights standards to different degrees. In response, these companies began to rely on voluntary codes of conduct and on social audits and certifications by third parties to assess compliance against such codes. ![]() As brands and retailers began to source their products from different countries, they came under public pressure to ensure that their suppliers were not involved in human rights abuses or environmental harm. ![]() ![]() Social audits (private inspections) and related certifications of suppliers have proliferated over recent decades. is one of numerous auditing experts who spoke with Human Rights Watch and shared insights about the social audits and certifications industry. (pseudonym), auditing industry expert who chose to remain anonymous, South Asia, May 29, 2018.Īndrew A. They get all obsessed with their audit tools and their reports and they miss the goal which is to uncover the abuses.Īndrew A. There is a lot of elaborate worrying and planning if you really want to do something deep. Because you have to pay all your staff salaries and what do you want to do? A three-week audit? It’s not just all the days going to the factories, but it’s also going to the slums to meet the workers, writing the notes, coaching all the staff, you have to worry about retaliation both for the auditors and workers. ![]() You have to ignore a whole bunch of things you can sense is a problem. ![]()
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