Auditing the 'Fair Trade' Workplace
Making trade better for the actual workers is the best way to ensure good quality products- products people buy because they want to, as opposed to buying out of sympathy or guilt. 'Fair Trade' is always a work in progress. The idea that a label by itself is everything is a step above mere blind commerce, but getting to know the actual 'fair trade' company, it's character and practices really sends a much stronger message to those involved in 'fair trade'.
In practice, this strengthens the meaning behind the label. It gives the label life and prevents the label from resting upon the status quo. For example, my company in Cambodia paid well above market rates last year, but since that time inflation has been running as high as 22%. In this case, we need to adjust in order to prevent our 'fair trade' claims from stagnating.
At Baskets of Cambodia we are constantly facing new challenges. Our work force is in the range of 200-400 people depending on the time of year and the strength of sales. We pay significantly more than average for our products and because of our numbers, this creates potential problems by allowing room for a middle-man to interfere.
This could be in the form of someone taking orders to their village or house and paying others less to make the same product.
To deal with this problem, we are creating a database on all our workers that is constantly updated. With this database, our staff can do spot audits by visiting our workers independently at their place of work. By doing this we can minimize the potential for brokers, and ensure that everyone is paid according to company terms. This information is also made available for those involved in workers' welfare issues to audit.
We also compare production to what we feel an individual is capable of producing. Producing items of high quality and workmanship is the best way to make sure that children are not extensively involved in the production of our product. Low quality items inevitably attract children who generally work for free or next to nothing.
Any company, large or small should be able to do this, and any customer should be able to ask about the availability of this information. There exists an opportunity within 'fair trade' associated companies to ignore the facts on the ground and instead rely on brokers who of course, learn quickly to tell them what they want to hear.
When employed, this method exploits 'fair trade' for the advantage of easy profits.
Some companies are becoming larger, and sourcing from multiple locations. In many cases they have little direct contact with the worker but are overly anxious to keep everything purchased in the 'fair trade' category. This can easily lead to exploitation of both workers and the very concept of 'fair trade'.
At Baskets of Cambodia, we feel that constant introspection and oversight should be part of any 'fair trade' equation. 'Feel good' marketing can be as easy way of glossing over real 'fair trade' issues and can contribute to worker exploitation.
TY
In practice, this strengthens the meaning behind the label. It gives the label life and prevents the label from resting upon the status quo. For example, my company in Cambodia paid well above market rates last year, but since that time inflation has been running as high as 22%. In this case, we need to adjust in order to prevent our 'fair trade' claims from stagnating.
At Baskets of Cambodia we are constantly facing new challenges. Our work force is in the range of 200-400 people depending on the time of year and the strength of sales. We pay significantly more than average for our products and because of our numbers, this creates potential problems by allowing room for a middle-man to interfere.
This could be in the form of someone taking orders to their village or house and paying others less to make the same product.
To deal with this problem, we are creating a database on all our workers that is constantly updated. With this database, our staff can do spot audits by visiting our workers independently at their place of work. By doing this we can minimize the potential for brokers, and ensure that everyone is paid according to company terms. This information is also made available for those involved in workers' welfare issues to audit.
We also compare production to what we feel an individual is capable of producing. Producing items of high quality and workmanship is the best way to make sure that children are not extensively involved in the production of our product. Low quality items inevitably attract children who generally work for free or next to nothing.
Any company, large or small should be able to do this, and any customer should be able to ask about the availability of this information. There exists an opportunity within 'fair trade' associated companies to ignore the facts on the ground and instead rely on brokers who of course, learn quickly to tell them what they want to hear.
When employed, this method exploits 'fair trade' for the advantage of easy profits.
Some companies are becoming larger, and sourcing from multiple locations. In many cases they have little direct contact with the worker but are overly anxious to keep everything purchased in the 'fair trade' category. This can easily lead to exploitation of both workers and the very concept of 'fair trade'.
At Baskets of Cambodia, we feel that constant introspection and oversight should be part of any 'fair trade' equation. 'Feel good' marketing can be as easy way of glossing over real 'fair trade' issues and can contribute to worker exploitation.
TY
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