Finbarr Bermingham and Cissy Zhou wrote an interesting article in the South China Morning Post, entitled Bribes, fake factories and forged documents: the buccaneering consultants pervading China’s factory audits. An interesting Linkedin discussion ensued. There is so much evidence of wrongdoing, nobody can deny social compliance audit reports are highly unreliable. As I wrote nearly 10 years ago, Social compliance audits don’t work! Worse yet, they push the factory to work with … [Read more...]
Why Conduct On-Site Social Compliance Audits? [Podcast]
In part 6 of our mini-series of podcast episodes about vetting Chinese suppliers, I'm discussing social compliance audits. After regular factory audits are done on a prospective supplier, it may make sense to assess their social compliance, too. But are these audits into things like legal practices and health & safety truly everything that they promise? … [Read more...]
3 Common Ways Factories Try to Cheat Inspectors/Auditors
Every day in China, in Vietnam, in Bangladesh, and in India, thousands of inspectors and auditors take a bus or a car to a factory. And, in some of those factories, managers are plotting how to cheat those unwelcome visitors. Let's look at 3 very common ways this is done, so you are warned and ready to avoid unscrupulous suppliers like this... … [Read more...]