SAI & UN Women finalize the Gender Equity Seal to promote fair treatment of men and women in the workplace and supply chain

 

Gender equality is a human right and a business imperative.  Despite a commitment to gender equity on the corporate agenda, however, progress has not matched aspirations.

 

In July 2012, SAI, in partnership with UN Women, finalized the Gender Equity Seal (GES) as a new auditable standard and certification system. The GES leverages SAI's extensive experience in management systems for social performance.

 

GES provides a 'gender lens'- a specialized standard - that can be easily integrated into a company's standard audit whether against an external or company code. It is anticipated that GES will primarily be used on a business to business level with the potential for expansion to a consumer label.

 

In addition to performance criteria, GES details specific criteria for policies, procedures, training and other management systems components. The intent is to provide companies with a clear roadmap to measure and improve their capacity to, and ultimately, demonstrate their progress in, implementing gender equity policies with a view to ultimately earning GES certification.

 

The GES was drafted and refined after extensive public consultation, including a multi-stakeholder survey and one-on-one interviews. There was strong confirmation of the rigor and applicability of GES. Below are a few of the hundreds of comments received in a public survey to elicit people's views on the value of a gender certification system:

 

"This is an important and much awaited initiative. High time that companies inculcate gender equity principles across their supply chain."

 

"The power of GES comes from a widespread application..."

 

"A mechanism to ensure mandatory compliance with such standards on gender equity needs to be developed...."

 

UN Women is now deliberating SAI's recommendations for the roll-out of the certification system on a regional and global scale. Currently, the standard is publicly available and companies can use it to benchmark their existing systems and performance.

 

GES has, as its foundations, the relevant ILO Conventions and international human rights instruments. It includes criteria on equal pay and equal treatment in relation to recruitment, employment and termination of contracts as well as provision of a safe working environment with an effective sexual harassment policy, and flexible, nondiscriminatory work practices.

 

The GES complements other initiatives, such as the Women's Empowerment Principles' Reporting Guidance (modeled on the GRI framework), which was launched at the 4th Annual Women's Empowerment Principles Event in March this year as well as the Calvert Women's Principles.

 

About UN Women: In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. The creation of UN Women came about as part of the UN reform agenda, bringing together resources and mandates for greater impact. It merges and builds on the important work of four previously distinct parts of the UN system, which focused exclusively on gender equality and women's empowerment. Website: www.unwomen.org   

 

View the GES standard @bit.ly/O5YhkB. For more information, contact SAI Communications Manager Joleen Ong - JOng@sa-intl.org.    

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I asked Rishi Sher Singh that question two days ago. Singh knows the area and the company. He grew up in New Delhi in a Sikh family -- we spoke the day before the mindless shooting of people attending the Sikh Temple in Wisconsin. Singh has worked in the same industrial area where Maruti Suzuki is located, for a supplier to Maruti.

Singh is now based in Bangalore, where last year he ran 22 workshops to train managers in the implementation of workplace standards and management systems for human resources. He is the India Project Director for the New York-based non-profit organization Social Accountability International (SAI).

He was in New York City for planning meetings with SAI staff (disclosure: I have been married to SAI's president, Alice Tepper Marlin, for 41 years). My questions follow with Singh's answers:

John Tepper Marlin: I was shocked at the violence of the workers on July 18 and by the apparent lack of communication that it indicates between management and workers. Are these reactions merited?

SINGH: Yes to both.

JTM: An automotive analyst in Bangkok believes that the core problem is the "perceived inequality" of India's contract workers, which he calls a "ticking time bomb." Is he right?

SINGH: Yes, that is definitely a key issue, unfairness to contract workers. More broadly, factory managers are not taking enough time to listen to the problems of workers. Stakeholder engagement is very important and there must be a pressure-relief valve for dissent, to prevent it becoming an explosion. Otherwise the pressure builds up.

JTM: What do you think were the major issues that led to the violent worker reaction on July 18?

SINGH: I think there were two major issues: 1) One was harassment. A supervisor called an Indian worker low-caste. The insulted worker responded by slapping the supervisor. The worker was fired. The incident seems to indicate that the plant might have a weak system for handling complaints, especially for filing a report on discrimination and caste-related issues. The insulted worker did not think he had any recourse. What is clearly needed at the plant is a complaint resolution system for harassment and other concerns. 2) The other was wage concerns. Yes, the plant did have a mechanism for addressing wage questions. A big problem is that contract workers are paid as little as one-third of what permanent workers get and the company pays them no medical benefits. This is a countrywide problem, because the law is ambiguous. Contract workers are supposed to be used only for peripheral jobs but they are used for core jobs -- they are in fact often doing the same work as permanent workers. Manufacturers are exploiting a loophole in the law. The use of contract workers has doubled since 2000 to 1.5 million workers, and some states under-report the number of contract workers. The central government should be monitoring the state reports, their completeness and the clarity of reporting on the scope and engagement of contract workers.

SINGH: Maruti's Chairman quickly declared a lockout. The police have been keeping workers or outsiders from entering the factory and they are exercising arrest warrants for union leaders -- including the union president, Ram Meher, who has said that the violence was started by company-hired anti-union thugs who attacked workers with weapons.The company and Indian police have denied this. So the facts are still being established.

JTM: Maruti Suzuki says they pay more than 70 percent above minimum wage. Any comment?

SINGH:Yes, in the automotive region where they are located, all wages are relatively high.

SINGH: Yes, that would help.

JTM: Published reports show that management had warning of worker discontent, with three production stoppages in the past year. The lockout means Maruti is producing 1,600 fewer cars per day. Maruti stock fell 8.5 percent in two weeks and Suzuki Motor Corp. stock fell 6.6 percent. What does this mean in the bigger picture?

SINGH: It might be good for Hyundai and Tata Motors, which sell competing cars. But of course it may have a negative impact on foreign investment in India.

JTM: Is this factory unique, or have other factories seen incidents like this?

SINGH: I wish I could say it was a one-off. But in recent years three other factories in the automotive area had strikes for higher pay and improved status for contract workers. Four years ago the managing director of an Italian-owned plant in the area, Graziano Trasmissioni India, was beaten to death by a group of dismissed employees.

SINGH: The factories need to reduce tension and manage conflict on an ongoing basis. They need a means of regular communication between workers and management to get to the root causes of their major issues. Any systematic approach to ensuring this is better than none, but of course I am inclined to encourage the use of the SA8000 approach.

JTM: Why is SA8000 special?

SINGH: The key is SA8000's "management systems" approach to human resources, which seeks to ensure routine adherence to the other eight performance criteria of the SA8000 standard. The systematic approach is much admired by managers who have been trained in use of SA8000, specifically because it helps to sustain compliance. The system also incorporates routine stakeholder engagement, which is crucial for understanding the many points of view of those involved in a supply chain.

 

In June 2010, a nonviolent eight-day strike of 1,700 workers at the Honda factory in Zhongshan attracted international attention. Within three weeks, it was the third Honda auto parts factory in Guangdong province to suffer a work stoppage, along with plants in Shenzhen and Foshan.

In addition to the issue of inadequate wages, the workers at the Honda plants were pressing to have their own union, because they felt that the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) was not representing them adequately.

On August 4, I was privileged to talk about these questions with Mike Lee, Lead Trainer for Social Accountability International (SAI) in China, shown in photo with SAI's Development Manager, Eliza Wright.

Like Rishi Sher Singh, Lee was in the United States for SAI planning sessions. (See my prior post on workplace developments in India, and note my disclosure that I have been married for 41 years to the president of SAI.)

Lee has his M.Sc. degree in Chemical Engineering from Northeast China Institute of Electric Power Engineering and a B.Sc. degree in Electrical Engineering from Wuhan University. He has conducted more than 50 SA8000 audits. He is based in Shenzhen, near the site of one of the three Honda plants that had work stoppages in 2010.

SAI is pleased to announce its membership in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), as a 2012 non-profit, complementary member. This highly competitive complementary membership enables SAI to join hundreds of leaders from a wide array of sectors: business, government, NGOs, foundations and civil society.  

 

Through CGI and its members, SAI will specify and fulfill commitments through the CGI model - inspirations, networking, knowledge building and collaboration.   

 

"SAI is delighted to become a member of CGI," said SAI President Alice Tepper Marlin. "It aligns with SAI's approach as a multi-stakeholder organization that brings all voices to the table to drive change in supply chains around the world. We look forward to expanding our network and leveraging our experience with the CGI model." 

 

According to CGI, member commitments represent "bold new ways to address global challenges - implemented through new methods of partnership and designed to maximize impact...CGI counts among its members the heads of many of the most effective nongovernmental organizations working around the world on problems related to climate change, economic stability, global health, and poverty alleviation."   

 

SAI Executive Director Eileen Kaufman participated in the mid-year meeting in July 2012, and will attend the annual meeting in late September 2012.  

 

About the Clinton Global Initiative: Established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) convenes global leaders to create and implement innovative solutions to the world's most pressing challenges. CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 150 heads of state, 20 Nobel Prize laureates, and hundreds of leading CEOs, heads of foundations and NGOs, major philanthropists, and members of the media. To date CGI members have made more than 2,100 commitments, which are already improving the lives of nearly 400 million people in more than 180 countries. When fully funded and implemented, these commitments will be valued at $69.2 billion. For more information, visit  clintonglobalinitiative.org and follow them on Twitter @ClintonGlobal and Facebook at  facebook.com/clintonglobalinitiative.

 

For more information, contact SAI Communications Manager Joleen Ong - JOng@sa-intl.org.  

 

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Snapshots of forum speakers: (from left) Enrique Javier Fernández-Maldonado Mujica, Director of Conflict Resolution and Prevention and CSR, Ministry of Labor of Peru; David José Campana, CSR Consultant, Peru EQUIDAD;   Aurelio Manuel Soto Barba, Regional Director for Labor and Employment Promotion for Metropolitan Lima, Ministry of Labor of Peru.

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Participants at the SA8000 Basic Course in Colombo, Sri Lanka, August 6-10, 2012. [Photo credit: Sanjiv Singh]

SAI Training Schedule: 2012

SAI staff with Joe MacDonald, a longtime supporter of SAI, at a post-Annual Planning meeting reception in Long Island, New York. [From left: Mike Lee, Eliza Wright, Joe MacDonald, Alice Tepper Marlin, Joleen Ong, Rishi Sher Singh and Harrison Xu.]