amfori BSCI
The amfori Business Social Compliance Initiative [ amfori BSCI , founded in 2003 as Business Social Compliance Initiative ( BSCI )] is a program of the business association amfori to improve social standards in a global value chain . The organization, based in Brussels, offers commercial enterprises the option of adopting or following a code of conduct as well as a systematic monitoring and qualification system.
Code of Conduct
BSCI offers companies a code of conduct that supports them in their efforts to establish an ethical supply chain. This code is based on international treaties for the protection of workers' rights, it concerns the following eleven key elements: management practice, no questionable employment, working hours, remuneration, child labor , forced labor (including prison labor and coercive measures), freedom of assembly (including freedom of organization and freedom of collective bargaining), discrimination (gender , Race, religion), working conditions, health and social facilities, health and safety at work (occupational safety), aspects of environmental protection and special protection of young employees. In January 2014, BSCI introduced a new code of conduct that actively involves all trading partners in the process of compliance with social standards. This code came into force in 2015.
An important orientation for the BSCI Code of Conduct is the SA8000 standard of the organization Social Accountability International (SAI). The global membership organization for sustainability standards leads the BSCI as best practice to the SA8000 standard.
By signing the BSCI Code of Conduct, companies undertake to recognize social criteria on which this Code of Conduct is based in their sphere of influence and to implement suitable measures to implement and comply with their corporate policy.
Requirements for participating companies
To ensure that all companies that have joined the BSCI implement the BSCI Code of Conduct in their supply chain, compliance with certain requirements is monitored. This means that companies that take part in the BSCI undertake to integrate ⅔ of the production facilities in defined risk countries into the BSCI process within a certain period of time.
approach
According to the Swiss BSCI website, the BSCI uses “a holistic system for checking and improving minimum requirements, which includes a common auditing system and the corresponding training and education measures”.
The BSCI is based on three fundamental pillars:
- The auditing of the production facilities and farms to check the degree of implementation of the BSCI Code of Conduct.
- Training the participants and their suppliers to improve the understanding and implementation of the social requirements contained in the BSCI Code of Conduct.
- The continuous dialogue with the stakeholders (governments, trade unions, etc.) in order to influence the political, economic and cultural framework conditions that limit the sustainable improvement of working conditions.
Stakeholders are actively involved in the work of the BSCI in an advisory capacity through the BSCI Stakeholder Council. This advisory board includes trade unions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Solidaridad, Save the Children and Social Accountability International. In 2014, the UN institutions UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund) joined the Stakeholder Council .
history
The BSCI was founded in 2003 by the Foreign Trade Association (FTA, today: amfori), the European umbrella organization of the foreign trade association of German retailers specializing in international trade issues . It began as a public-private partnership ( PPP ) with the German GTZ to implement a uniform procedure in eleven countries that would improve the social situation of workers at suppliers to German retailers. The organization has been operating in the most important supplier countries for European trade since 2004. The number of members grew steadily: in 2007, fewer than 100 companies were involved in the initiative, two years later 430. At the end of 2010, the initiative had 644 members. The list of members is publicly available on the BSCI website, but this list cannot be used to check how actively the member companies actually implement the code of conduct.
In 2009 the organization received the DNWE 2008 Award for Business Ethics.
On the occasion of its tenth anniversary, Jörg. S. Hofstetter and Marc Müller from the University of St. Gallen published a study on the history and successes of the BSCI. It turned out that India has become the country with the highest number of compliant producers in recent years. In 2011 three quarters of all companies met the required standards. Bangladesh and Vietnam, where almost half of all companies adhere to the standards, follow suit. In an interview with Der Handel magazine , Katag boss Daniel Terberger spoke out in favor of a stronger reliance on the BSCI platform and against the alliance for fairness launched by Minister Gerd Müller in 2014 - with reference to the existence of a threat to the existence of medium-sized businesses.
criticism
In 2009, the Südwind Institute objected to the unworthy working conditions at Aldi’s suppliers and ruled that membership of the BSCI was not sufficient, as it was an initiative that was based solely on voluntary commitments by the industry. Instead, trading companies should submit to binding rules as required by the EU Parliament.
The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) criticizes the work of the BSCI in connection with the conditions at Lidl's suppliers . Her focus is on auditing, weak monitoring with many shortcomings, and there is a lack of independent verification and transparency. It is also not a multi-stakeholder initiative, but a corporate initiative.
In 2010, the consumer center in Hamburg (with the support of the CCC and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR)) sued Lidl for unfair competition , as the company advertised with the fulfillment of its social responsibility and membership in the BSCI, although the situation in the Suppliers contradicted this advertising. The legal dispute was ended by an out-of-court settlement in which Lidl promised to withdraw the controversial advertising claims.
On June 6, 2013, ARD Monitor reported on the lax inspections carried out by TÜV Süd in textile factories in Bangladesh that were supposed to work under the standards of the BSCI. It has been criticized that employees have to work a lot of overtime and are occasionally beaten. In addition, controls in the factories are said to have been announced beforehand, which does not meet the BSCI standards. TÜV Süd points out that the test reports mentioned in the report are out of date (from 2010) and TÜV Rheinland also rejects all other allegations. ARD Monitor also relies on current research and interviews with employees on site.
Web links
- BSCI homepage
- Study by the University of St. Gallen on BSCI
- University of St. Gallen study short version (pdf; 378 kB)
- BSCI in Switzerland
- BSCI annual reports
- Measure and Improve Your Labor Standards Performance ( Memento of January 18, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Handbook, SAI. 2010
Individual evidence
- ↑ BSCI Code of Conduct .
- ^ Business and Human Rights Resource Center .
- ↑ Social Accountability International (SAI)
- ^ ISEAL .
- ↑ BSCI Commitment ( Memento of the original from October 4, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ BSCI goals ( Memento of the original dated November 16, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ BSCI Stakeholder Council ( Memento of the original dated May 22, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Foreign Trade Association (FTA)
- ↑ PPP with GTZ ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ BSCI Annual Report 2010
- ↑ FTA. Retrieved August 14, 2017 .
- ↑ Preis für Unternehmensethik, dnwe.de ( Memento of the original dated November 2, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ COOP on BSCI study .
- ↑ University of St. Gallen study short version (pdf; 378 kB) ( Memento of the original from October 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Aldi suppliers exploit the Chinese for promotional goods , Tagesspiegel.de, February 3, 2009.
- ↑ LIDL company profile ( Memento from September 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ), sa Brille.de
- ↑ Codes of conduct in the law of unfair competition: On the relationship between self-commitment and formal law / Benjamin Carl Reichelt . Retrieved April 14, 2019.
- ^ ARD Monitor report ( Memento from June 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ TÜV Rheinland press release .
