How to Vet Ethical Manufacturing Practices in China
Several years ago, I was testing out a new-to-me manufacturer in China. . . .
I had worked with the sales rep in the past at a previous company, so we already had a solid, dependable working relationship — but I needed to vet the quality of the craftsmanship with this new factory.
Things were going great. Their team completed several test projects for me based on various product specs I had given them, and the end results were perfect. I was excited to add this new vendor to my roster.
But then I received an email from my rep.
She said, “Our boy just told me that your package has been picked up by DHL. Here’s the tracking information.”
BOY? Did she really just tell me that a boy works in her office?
I panicked. I pride myself on only selecting factories that adhere to ethical practices. I started to sweat and feverishly typed back to her asking how old this boy was.
I knew I wasn’t going to hear back from her right away because of the time difference between China and Massachusetts . . . so I prepared myself for a sleepless night.
Luckily, my brother-in-law used to live in Shanghai. He lived there for about 20 years, owned his own art gallery, and employed many Chinese workers. He’s fluent in the language, so I sent him a text.
He was able to reassure me that the term “boy” is actually the term for a young man (as in a man in his 20’s), but the direct translation of the word from Chinese to English is boy, not young man.
I was mildly reassured, but with all of the stories we hear about sweatshops and child labor in China, I needed some hard proof that this new factory was operating in accordance with the best ethical standards and practices.
But how do you get that hard proof from a business that’s half a world away so you can move forward confidently and ethically?
You ask them for proof.
One option is to ask for a SMETA Audit to be performed at your supplier’s factory.
SMETA stands for Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit and was created by the Sedex organization.
Here’s information directly from the Sedex website:
“SMETA is the world’s most widely used audit. Businesses use SMETA to understand and make improvements to working conditions and environmental performance in their business supply chain.”
SMETA is an audit which helps you to understand standards of labor, health and safety, environmental performance, and ethics at a supplier site.
They go on to say that these audits are designed to help protect workers from unsafe conditions, overwork, discrimination, low pay, and forced labor.
So, you can simply ask if your factory of choice has a SMETA Audit report on record that they can share with you so you can review it and determine for yourself whether or not the factory meets your standards of working conditions.
Another option is to ask for an SA8000 Standard Certificate, which stands for Social Accountability 8000.
Here’s information directly from the SAI (Social Accountability International) International website:
“SA8000 applies a management-system approach to social performance and emphasizes continual improvement, not checklist-style auditing.”
Their “Elements of the Standard” include:
Child Labor
Forced or Compulsory Labor
Health and Safety
Freedom of Association + Right to Collective Bargaining
Discrimination
Disciplinary Practices
Working Hours
Compensation
Management Systems
They go on to say that management systems, worker engagement, a culture of continuous improvement, and other elements of SA8000 not only lead to better working conditions and worker well-being, they also have benefits for productivity, stakeholder relationships, market access, and more.
Again, you can simply ask your factory of choice if they have an SA8000 Standard Certification on record that they can share with you. If they do, this alone will tell you that the factory meets internationally recognized standards of decent work.
So, what’s the difference?
SA8000 is an international non-government organization which aims to advance human rights at work.
It originated in the US and was established in 1997. It’s a certification type of audit, in which a certificate will be granted once the organization passes the audit. It typically takes about 2-3 months to complete and can cost thousands of dollars. Certificates are valid for 3 years and are subject to on-site monitoring twice each year, which is a combination of announced and unannounced visits.
SMETA, on the other hand, is an audit procedure created by the membership organization Sedex, which was established in the UK in 2004. SMETA, unlike the SA8000, is an audit report. It does not indicate a “Passed” or “Failed” result and no certificate is given. The timeframe for SMETA is similar in that it can take 2-3 months to perform the audit, but the cost is generally lower — still in the thousands, but less than the SA8000.
A SMETA report doesn't have an expiration date and there is no rule on how often sites should accept social audits. However, Sedex members conduct an audit cycle depending on the risk factors involved. If a factory is at high risk, they are subject to a yearly audit, medium risk results in audits every 3 years, and for low risk factories, it depends on how often customers request an audit from that specific factory.
Both SA8000 and SMETA cover two of the most important areas in social compliance where risks are high for human rights — labor standards and health and safety standards.
Child labor, for example, is one of the most common malpractices of manufacturers. Because of this, companies are required to create a recruitment process and establish a Child Labor Policy to ensure that there are no children in the working area.
SMETA also covers environmental standards and business ethics, where SA8000 does not.
Asking your suppliers for these social audits demonstrates your commitment towards social responsibility, strengthening your brand image, and opening your business to more opportunities.
If you intend to sell to major retail chains, such as The Container Store, they will ask you to provide these certificates from your suppliers before placing an order with you.
At Copper Bottom, we won’t work with any manufacturer who isn’t able to supply us with an SA8000 certificate. If they have a SMETA report as well, we’ll gladly look at that too.
My production manager keeps these records on file, and tracks the expiration dates so she can follow up accordingly to make sure everyone is keeping compliant with our standards.
If you’re working with a factory overseas, I suggest you email them now and request these audit reports. All you have to do is ask. Businesses that have them will happily share them.
Oh, and if you’re still wondering about the “boy” from the beginning of this post . . . he’s 22, or at least was back then. My sales rep got back to me and was quite amused by my question.
She also followed up with her SA8000 certificate and is still one of my trusted manufacturing partners to this day.
Feeling ready to move production overseas?
I created a streamlined checklist so you know exactly what you need to do before making the leap to overseas manufacturing . . . and it’s available now at the link below.