Freedom of association

We believe that worker-management communication is vital for successful businesses. Workers must have effective communication channels with management to help resolve workplace issues and disputes.

In order to provide clearer guidance and a deeper understanding of these requirements, we give suppliers the Guidelines on Employment Standards, which you can view on our corporate website. The Guidelines include a dedicated section on freedom of association and collective bargaining and set out our expectations, case studies and practical activities to achieve compliance.

One form worker-management dialogue takes is through a trade union. We have taken a neutral approach to unionisation but with positive and open communication about freedom of association, collective bargaining and committees as prototypes of representation. We believe that workers’ rights to freely associate must be protected, and they must not suffer because of any union affiliation. Therefore, we have persuaded factories in several cases to rehire staff dismissed for attempting to form associations.

As a buyer and third party to the employment relationship, we cannot become directly involved in forming factory associations, but we feel they have a valuable role to play in giving workers a voice and providing training on workplace safety. We have spent years trying to gain a clear picture of local political and regulatory environments in countries such as China, Vietnam, Indonesia, El Salvador, Thailand and Bulgaria.

Developing a better measure of worker-management communication

In 2007 we started to strategically look at forms of worker representation and management attitudes to representation. Working with two academics from the Cornell University School of International Relations we developed a revised unit of measure for representation in our Key Performance Indicator. We think this will more clearly define the actual factory environment and inform practical remediation.

We identified the common workplace practices related to worker-management communication in the supply chain and characterised four principal models of workers’ representation:

  • Unilateral management control
  • Information sharing between employer and employees
  • Consultation between employer and employees
  • Collective bargaining.

In our engagement, we elaborated on the direct link between the prevalent model of worker representation and compliance with our Standards. Suppliers’ terms of employment including hiring and termination, as well as their communication practices with the workforce, all vary depending on the model of worker representation in a factory.

As a result we developed a monitoring worksheet that focuses on the correlation between the four principal models of worker representation and the execution of relevant employment standards. SEA team members will pilot the worksheet in specific regions to test if this approach delivers more accurate information for evaluating the quality of worker-management communication.

  • Workers must have effective communication channels with management to help resolve workplace issues and disputes.