Global brands and retailers created the Global Social Compliance Programme GSCP to define what good looks like in global supply chains. Their intention was to drive upward convergence of corporate social standards, thus enabling mutual audit recognition and better cooperation. Multiple and often repetitious audits would be avoided and resources directed to improving conditions.
The approach of this business driven initiative was serious and ambitious. The Reference Code that was to be the backbone of GSCP would be designed to fill the most stringent requirements of existing policies and social standards. This would be done together with trade unions and civil society representatives.
For many of the stakeholders that finally signed up, supporting the new initiative was far from self-evident. My organisation at the time, UNI Commerce Global Union, set its own requirements and conditions, and so did others. After a solid internal consultation process among member trade unions, UNI Commerce decided to join.
The years that we spent creating the GSCP Reference code and the toolbox to help apply it at supplier workplaces showed us that our decision had been correct.
It was a complicated exercise to reconcile the views of huge global retailers such as Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco with those of UNI Commerce, the International Federation for Human Rights FIDH, and others. Still it worked, and the Executive and Advisory Boards always found common ground and agreed on solutions.
Today, GSCP is in place. An actively used environmental module complements the social responsibility instruments. Membership is up and global brands and industries have joined forces with traders. Many programmes and projects are using GSCP tools for capacity building and remediation. Cooperation with UN agencies and others is steadily increasing. Buyers, auditors and CSR schemes use the GSCP equivalence process to enable mutual recognition and joint action.
This is happening in an environment where many union organisations, social campaigners and politicians are suspicious and even hostile towards voluntary approaches by business. The intention of some seems to be to duplicate the Bangladesh Accord on Building and Fire Safety when addressing also other countries, regions and issues.
I doubt that this would work. The Bangladesh Accord responded to an unusually grave situation in the midst of high publicity, and addressed a specific although important part of labour conditions.The way that it finally came about was also exceptional and related to a public opinion that demanded fast action by global buyers.
To bring about something similar in a less upset situation would surely require a mutually respectful relationship where serious intentions of others are recognised and accepted rather than looked at with suspicion and often immediately discarded. In today’s strained economic and labour relations climate, this would call for much re-thinking on all sides.
It is much more realistic to accept and develop multiple approaches to improve the social situation in global supply chains. Governments need to secure the basic respect for human rights as well as decent conditions for workers and their families. Trade unions must have the right and the capacity to give workers a voice in an environment where social dialogue and collective agreements become mainstream tools for regulating wages and employment conditions. Social advocacy associations and other non-governmental organisations need to be positively engaged.
Business driven but with a solid civil society participation, GSCP comes together for its Members Conference and a joint Executive and Advisory Board Meeting this Thursday, in Los Angeles. Priorities will be defined and concrete tasks set.
A platform rather than an operative CSR scheme, GSCP deals with similar issues as individual standard organisations. Still, the programme is different from the schemes and initiatives. GSCP does not conduct audits, issue certificates or engage directly in concrete capacity building and remediation at workplaces.
GSCP has a unique convening power among brands and retailers, much due to the serious commitment of its host association, the Consumer Goods Forum CGF. An important task for GSCP is indeed to mobilise responsible brands and retailers both within and outside the consumer industry for concerted action to help improve supply chain conditions.
To focus on particularly difficult or widespread supply chain problems may well be useful when real changes are sought. Successful projects on this basis can be good catalysts for further remediation of conditions. It is important to set any aims so that they build on the GSCP Reference Code principles of setting standards on the highest existing levels. To go below this could easily lead to misunderstandings or false interpretations and even harm other sustainability activities.
Even if individual issues are singled out for special attention, GSCP cannot distract itself from its core mission as a whole. The GSCP Reference Code is and must remain the backbone of all policies and programmes, to ensure cohesion, credibility, impact and respect.
The final aim of this social responsibility work is a situation where employers and workers can agree on relations and conditions through mutually respectful social dialogue and collective agreements, supported by governments. To achieve this requires that buyer companies help ensure full compliance with universal human rights standards and international labour norms, also where national legislation or policies are not on these levels.
GSCP is an exceptionally good forum to develop joint approaches which then can be implemented through multiple programmes and partner organisations. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights is now being included in national legislation and programmes. The German Presidency of the G7 Group of leading industrialised countries has placed supply chain sustainability high on the common agenda for 2015. These are but some of the developments that directly affect GSCP and its role as a convening platform.
The corporate sector wields much power in the globalised economy. GSCP exists to help leading global brands and retailers as well as other parts of the business community to ensure that universal human rights and decent labour standards are respected and applied in global supply chains. This is – and should be – in the interest of all. Without this contribution by the business community itself, change would be both slower and less effective.
This engagement is now building up within GSCP and should be actively nurtured. The member brands and retailers should more clearly show their commitment to GSCP as their common sustainability platform. This would not weaken their ties with schemes and initiatives who have their own missions and roles. GSCP itself should have the members’ support to speak out on their behalf for these business driven activities that are firmly anchored in civil society.