Drawing on her assessment expertise in Chinese factories, Verité China Program Director Wenjuan Yao speaks with Vision, highlighting current issues in management interference, democratic election technicalities, and assessing workers’ rights to freedom of association and participation within the country’s single-union system.
In previous Vision pieces, we have pointed out that Executive Order 13627 on “Strengthening Protections against Trafficking in Persons in Federal Contracts” is designed to bolster the U.S. government’s zero-tolerance approach to trafficking in persons in federal contracts. On January 29, 2015, the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) Council released the much awaited “final rule” designed to implement the Executive Order signed by President Obama in September 2012, and Title XVII of the National Defense Authorization Act for 2013 (“Ending Trafficking in Government Contracting”)—both of which will require federal contractors and subcontractors to take specific proactive preventive measures to detect and eliminate human trafficking and forced labor in their supply chains.
London was awarded the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games based in some part on the bid’s broad commitment to setting the benchmark for sustainable events management. But because the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) was a temporary organization, it did not have the luxury of nurturing supplier performance improvement on labor conditions over time. Their commitment translated to managing social and environmental risk in 10,000 product lines from 600 direct suppliers and 60 licensees—almost entirely at the start of the business relationship.