Report on Monitoring and Compliance in Turkish Garment Supply Chain

The JO-IN project also commissioned a unique field-research into the subcontracting chains in an around Istanbul, down to sewing workshops and homeworkers, which is also available in Turkish and English at: http://www.jo-in.org/english/resimler/Jo-In_Subcontracting_Study.pdf

Below you can find a short summary of the project and its outcomes, including links to some of the other outputs realized.

Abstract from the Executive Summary of the Final Report

In the JO-IN project, six organizations working in the field of social compliance and worker rights (ETI, FLA, SAI, FWF, WRC and CCC) agreed to cooperate:
- to increase the effectiveness of and to reduce duplication among multi-stakeholder approaches to the implementation and enforcement of codes of social conduct within global supply chains;
- to seek areas for closer collaboration among the six; and
- to investigate the role of voluntary codes of labour practice in improving conditions for workers and their families within global supply chains.

Turkey was chosen as the location of a first initiative to advance this cooperation in a practical context. The project in Turkey included baseline assessments of six garment factories supplying to global brands that were members of the multi-stakeholder institutions (MSIs) involved in the project. The assessments focused on three core topics – freedom of association, wages and working time – that were identified as the most frequent elements of non-compliance in the sector. Remedial action plans were drawn up and implemented to address issues brought out in the initial assessments.

Information gathered during the baseline assessments showed some common problem areas:
- A negative approach towards freedom of association issues among some managers and a hesitancy among workers to discuss this issue
- heavy use of sub-contractors both in-house and externally in a continuous production chain
- worker ‘coaching’ in the face of social assessors (in one factory workers were specifically told by management to refuse interview by JO-IN off-site assessors)
- heavy workforce turnover in several instances
- extensive double book-keeping in regard to social security payments
- some low wage issues
- associated excessive overtime working in many instances

Remedial action was discussed and agreed with factories and brands and featured a three-phase strategy:
1: Attend to the basic compliance problems.
2: Address the problems of a negative ‘climate’ for freedom of association identified in the assessments.
3: Begin to address also (in a realistic manner appropriate to JO-IN’s limited capacity and lifespan), broader issues which are underlying causes of non-compliances at workplace level e.g.:
- the absence of an industrial relations policy and practice for the sector
- the absence of management systems (at some suppliers) which would enhance capacity to pay better wages and control hours-of-work more effectively
- buyer pricing and ordering systems which impact negatively on suppliers’ capacity to pay better wages and reduce overtime

Following a period of some six months during which suppliers and, where appropriate, brands carried out work around these issues, re-assessments were carried out at the participating factories. Despite differences in coverage between both sets of assessments, some interesting findings
emerged:
- raised awareness of and positive interest in encouraging training around freedom of association among managers;
- some decrease in overtime, but at the cost of increased worker stress from poorly designed productivity systems;
- wage payments were more regularised in some instances. But evidence surfaced of widespread double and triple book-keeping for the purpose of under-paying social security insurances and for hiding overtime rates even at the top level of the supply chain.
- two of the six companies in the study had outsourced extensive production to sub-contractors, either external, or in-house. Some had extensive outsourcing in other countries.

The Steering Cie. undertook 'asessment of the asessments' which reviews in the detail the process and methodology of the the six workplace asessments and re-assesments that were undertaken as part of the Jo-In project. This document is available at: http://www.jo-in.org/english/resimler/Assessment_of_assessments.pdf

Research was separately conducted into issues affecting the internal Turkish supply chain of sub-contractors. This showed that brand approved workshops enjoyed better working conditions across the range regardless of their size. But global price competition bore down heavily upon working conditions lower down the supply chain. A national strategy seemed called for that would engage all actors in the sector. Brands could help by eliminating uncertainty and developing longer-term relationships based on trust within which to develop product and social quality. Find the full report at: http://www.jo-in.org/english/resimler/Jo-In_Subcontracting_Study.pdf

Discussion around the issue of ‘Living Wage’ resulted in the development of a ‘Wage Ladder’ that allows wage levels to be plotted over time against various objective criteria. Research using the newly-developed ‘wage ladder’ concept demonstrated the pressure exercised on wages in the sector by global price competition. This suggested a comparative decline in real wages with some workers receiving below the legal minimum wage. For more information on the wage ladder go to: http://www.jo-in.org/english/resimler/Wage_ladder.pdf

Tangible results of the project locally included a heightened awareness and interest in freedom of association issues and training and an improved social dialogue between key protagonists. More profound were the changes brought about among the members of the Steering Committee and their respective organizations. The JO-IN Forum was formed at the close of the official project period as an ongoing platform for discussion and collaboration among the project participants. The purpose of the JO-IN Forum is to:

- Promote international consensus on good practice in the field of corporate responsibility for labour rights in supply chains
- Encourage greater collaboration for the implementation of good practice.
- In addition to completing outstanding aspects of the Turkey project, the Forum participants will continue to review the Common Code as a base for seeking closer correlation among their codes.