Asda/George

Download Asda/George's Submission Here (PDF)

Responded to survey: yes

MSI involvement: yes, Ethical Trading Initiative [what's this?]

Grade 2.0: Acknowledges that minimum and industry benchmark wages are not sufficient standards, but no real efforts to apply living wage. [what's this?]

Summary

A very disappointing submission which included no real information on living wages. Projects, all mentioned in last year’s profile, include audits to monitor code compliance and a productivity project in Bangladesh. No mention was made of attempts to support freedom of association or plans to address the very real problem of wages.

Position on living wages

Asda failed to state its position on wages, but as a member of the ETI must have committed to living wages as part of their code. It is clear that Asda don’t consider it to be their responsibility to address wages or other issues:

‘Suppliers need to take ownership of compliance in their factories. They need to demonstrate that they are regularly and rigorously auditing their own factories... Our code addresses both wage and freedom of association considerations.’

Position on Freedom of Association

None stated and no work mentioned

Work so far on living wages

Asda’s work on wages so far is based on enforcement of their code through auditing programmes and a productivity project in Bangladesh.

1. Improved auditing system:
The only direct reference to Asda having a direct impact on workers wages was mentioned in regard to its auditing programme:

‘Our audit programme, with its process of corrective action plans and follow-up audits, although not foolproof does allow us to engage at factory level in order to drive change. As an example, an audit carried out earlier this year at a factory in Bangladesh found issues
with minimum wage payments. In discussions with the factory, we requested that the factory management address the pay shortfalls immediately, before we would continue to do business. The management and vendor agreed to pay out any backdated pay to their
workers, and implemented a process to ensure the prompt and correct payment of workers.’

It is of course positive that Asda picked up the illegal levels of wages at this supplier. However the corrective plan only looked at ensuring wages met legal minimum and didn’t look at addressing overall wage levels. With minimum wages falling well below the poverty level in Bangladesh this doesn’t give much optimism for the general level of pay in Asda supplier factories.

2. Productivity project in Bangladesh:

‘Working with 6 Factories in Bangladesh, we have introduced a programme to retrain workers, improve and re-engineer production flow, and reduce product damages and down time. It is anticipated that this work will: empower the work force through improved skill levels, increase earning potential for workers such that they enter skilled pay band levels, reduce working hours to support a better work/life balance.’

Plans on living wages

Other significant information

Asda are changing tack and trying to go beyond auditing by supporting suppliers through eduction projects and consultation. They supplied information on a critical path management project to address lead times in the hope of mitigating against poor labour practices in production sites. Through the ETI homeworkers group they are also developing tools to map their supply chain, enhance transparency, and
monitor production times needed for handwork processes

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