A major multinational company recently asked us to audit one of their supplier’s China factories, and our Auditor found two workers just shy of their 16th birthdays on the factory floor. The legal working age in China is 16. The client’s immediate response:
• Business with this particular factory has been suspended.
• Both supplier and factory have been asked to correct the problem and to put measures in place to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
• A second follow-up audit is to be carried out, at the supplier’s expense.
• The factory must offer a job to the kids' family members to ensure no loss of revenue for the household.
These issues -especially now when any whiff of social irresponsibility, negligence or exploitation can be devastating for their image. Although child labor is much more common in countries like India and Bangladesh than in China, it should be noted that the legal working age in some countries is 15 rather than 16 and that the notion of apprenticeship muddies the waters. Even in France, the legal working age was 14 until well into the 1960’s.
Small tip for quick action (but not a replacement for a solid policy): ask the factory to create an HR file which contains a copy of an id for each employee with a record of starting and leaving date. In the long run, multinational companies will be judged by their ability to put social auditing processes in place and by how swiftly the respond to nasty surprises.
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