In this fourth and final installment of a miniseries on wellbeing, the conversation is all about social compliance auditing. What do two manufacturers, one brand, and one ex-social compliance auditor think: do social compliance audits make factories better places to work? What’s the intention behind social audits? Are audits about assurance? Or should they be a tool for collaboration and conversation? Or both? Also, what’s their take on how we could do them better?
Today’s episode brings together:
- Mulyawan Laij, Senior Social Sustainability Manager, TAL Apparel (manufacturing company)
- Mr. Venkat Rao, Chief Compliance Officer, Shahi Exports (manufacturing company)
- Shivam Punjya, Founder and Creative Director of Behno (A handbag brand producing in India that’s taken a very progressive approach to social compliance)
- Andre Raghu, CEO of HAP (and former social compliance auditor)
Want to dig deeper ?
This episode is thanks to a collaboration with the Asia Garment Hub. The Asia Garment Hub is a one-stop shop for industry data, news, resources and tools. It connects people and organizations from across the sector with a single vision –to make it fairer, more sustainable, and more competitive. Becoming a member is free.
The Asia Garment Hub is a joint initiative of GIZ FABRIC and the ILO’s Decent Work in Garment Supply Chains in Asia project. The ILO’s Decent Work in Garment Supply Chains Asia is funded by the government of Sweden. It aims to support decent work and sustainability in the garment sector by enhancing regional knowledge and policy coherence, together with industry level support to improve environmental sustainability, gender equality and business competitiveness. The FABRIC project is commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and supports the Asian textile industry in its transformation towards fair production for people and the environment.
Find out more about Behno.
Find out more about HAP:
Other episodes that tackle the subject of social compliance audits
- 061. Dr. Divya Jyoti on How Workers Experience Buyer Codes of Conduct Part 1
- 058. Manufactured x GIZ FABRIC: Gladys Tang on How Brands Can Support Supply Chain Dialogue
- 051. Manufactured x GIZ FABRIC: Professor Raymond Robertson on Why Social Compliance Data is a Necessary but Insufficient Metric for Worker Well-Being
There’s increasing alignment around the idea that social compliance audits haven’t delivered for workers. The New Conversations Project put forward several theories as to why this is (and this April 2021 publication goes into more details on the opacity theory).
