Detail on workers rights:

Wages

Wages

Asda’s public position on wages seems to have changed, in the face of significant criticism this year.  In 2006, it told us that,

Unfortunately there is no clear universal definition of the living wage and therefore the ETI Base Code cannot be applied.  Governments should set their minimum wage at levels that are linked to the country’s cost of living and local requirements.

In 2007, it has changed its mind, stating instead that,

Defining a living wage is not the issue, but Asda recognises that there are real practical difficulties in ensuring that a living wage is actually paid to the workforce rather than increasing producer margins...The only way we’re going to solve this is in collaboration with other retailers.

Asda wasn’t prepared to go into detail on what it planned to do to surmount these difficulties.

Freedom Of Association

In 2006, we criticised Asda’s stance on freedom of association, giving examples of anti-union attitudes in its UK and US retail and distribution operations.  Asda’s written submission for 2007 took issue with this, stating that,

referencing historical cases of conflict between Asda/Wal-Mart and trades unions in the US and UK may be of rhetorical value to your cause but actually says nothing useful about the current situation in Bangladesh.

The written response does not mention the following example, also cited last year, from a Bangladeshi factory supplying Asda/WalMart:

Workers...are not allowed to form any union or organisation. The management has warned them that if any one tries to organise workers and form a union he or she would be handed over to the police.

To reinforce our point, here are a few more examples of Asda/WalMart’s failure to uphold trade union rights:

• Workers producing for Asda in Bangladesh, cited in War on Want's 'Fashion Victims' report, state that, “if anybody tries to form a union he will be dismissed from his job. We never tried to organise a union due to fear of losing our jobs,” and others who, “are afraid of losing their jobs if the employer knows that they are involved in trade union activities.”
• The illegal dismissal of 116 striking workers in a Filipino factory supplying Asda/WalMart in 2007. Workers have endured violent attacks by police and security guards at the request of factory management.  WalMart does not seem to have intervened.
• Another Bangladeshi worker in a different factory supplying Asda, cited in ActionAid's 'Who Pays' report.  “There is a trade union but it is inactive,” she says. “The managers won’t let it work.”
• A Salvadorian factory that closed in 2005 soon after a trade union was formed; the owner transferred some workers and equipment to a second, non-unionised factory.  The unionised workers did not receive severance pay, are denied social security, and believe they have been blacklisted from other factories.  Asda/WalMart is still the only client of the factory not to respond to calls from campaigners.
• When, in 2006, workers in a Cambodian factory supplying George at Asda tried to protest their low wages by exercising their legal right to form a union and strike, the factory began a major anti-union campaign.  Some 19 union leaders and 120 union members were dismissed and replaced by new non-unionised workers, and 11 union activists were pursued into the courts. All clients except George at Asda and Arcadia Group were involved in efforts to resolve the case.

There is a clear conflict of interest, we said, in asking factory management to inform and educate workers and to ‘facilitate’ freedom of association as Asda claims it does, when they are under pressure to reduce costs and lead times.  In its written submission this year, Asda challenged this position, stating that,

Apart from creating the conditions where trades unions can flourish it is not clear what further action we can take.  Again, your observations on this practical point would be most welcome.

This is an odd statement, as an entire chapter of last year's report was devoted to explaining why programmes such as Asda's do not create conditions in which trade unions can flourish, and further setting out what it would need to do to achieve this.  Neither in its written response nor at our meeting could Asda give examples of steps taken in line with our recommendations.

Monitoring & Verification

Last year we raised our concerns that Asda’s approach relied too much on social audits, which, we argued, fail to pick up many problems.  We quoted WalMart’s website, which states that 13,600 audits were conducted last year.  Asda’s written submission this year states that,

We have nothing further to add to your comments in the monitoring and verification section except to say that more recent figures on audit numbers are now available. We would certainly accept that auditing alone cannot deliver the kind of changes in labour standards in Bangladesh that we all seek but it remains an important tool.

Our Conclusion