|
With
advent of international work place standards such SA 8000, and
the great amount of publicity about work place conditions, many
companies have hired professional monitoring organizations to
report on work place conditions at the factories where their
products are made. These factories may be down the street or
across an ocean. Manufacturers rely upon the accuracy of these
reports to ensure that there are suitable working conditions
and to protect themselves and their shareholders from what can
be an avalanche of bad publicity and ensuing costly litigation.
Surprisingly,
many manufacturers which use monitors have still found themselves
embroiled in litigation. One reason for this is that some monitoring
organizations fail to accurately report conditions and problems.
For example, the reports of one prominent monitoring organization
contained the wrong minimum wage information!
How
can a company tell if it is getting fair value for the fees
it pays to monitors? There are some warning signs which the
following points will detect.
- Difficult
to Read Reports: The report does not contain an executive
summary of conditions at the factory which can be assessed
within minutes. A summary is critical to identify problems
quickly and demonstrate that the monitor actually evaluated
what was observed.
- Inconsistent
Grading: The report contains a summary and a grade, but
the details of the report are very similar to other reports
which received a different grade.
- Favoritism:
The biggest suppliers always get good reviews.
- Rotation
of Inspectors: The monitoring service does not rotate
inspectors among factories.
- Incomplete
Reports: The reports are not completely filled out.
- Quick
Fixes of Difficult Problems: The monitor reports that
all problems have already been corrected, even though the
problems are not amenable to quick fixes.
Tony
Sarabia has extensive experience in the review and analysis
of monitoring programs. He has detected major problems in such
programs and has helped clients find much more cost effective
monitors. To communicate with him, please press Contact Us.
|
