Stuart Bell, Director of Policy at Ergon Associates, looks at some of the shortcomings of conventional audits as a tool and how companies are increasingly taking a different tack.
As ETI's corporate members prepare to submit their annual reports, it's worth reflecting on what they tell us about the state of ethical auditing, and to consider other ways of pursuing ethical trade. Our analysis of ETI members' audit findings provides ample evidence of the limitations of relying solely on audits as a means of identifying and rectifying labour abuses. They reveal a predominance of health and safety issues, followed by breaches on wages and working hours, but freedom of association and discrimination violations lag far behind. Relying on audits alone would suggest that these two issues are not problematic for workers. This is clearly nonsense. While audits are useful for spotting 'material' infractions, other issues, often reliant on capturing worker perspectives, slip under the audit radar.
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