Jack Wolfskin stopped working with four factories in China and one in India in 2012 because they failed to meet various quality criteria or social standards stipulated in the company’s code of conduct, according to the company's Supplier Social Report 2012.
Nearly half of the suppliers audited received scores of between 7 and 10 points for their overall performance, which was based on scores across nine areas of compliance. Thirty percent scored 5 to 6 points. The remaining 23 percent scored 4 or fewer points and were required to participate in remedial action plans in 2013.
In an ironic but not surprising twist, Jack Wolfskin will encourage as many Chinese suppliers as possible to take part in “Workplace Education Training” offered by the Fair Wear Foundation in 2013 to address shortcomings in management methods, working hours/pay and the right to collective representation.
In India, Jack Wolfskin ended a partnership with a supplier in mid-2012 after three years of audits and collaboration failed to produce satisfactory results. It added a new supplier and continues to work with four other facilities.
Three of 18 textile processing facilities in Vietnam received a compliance rating of 1 to 3 for poor compliance with the company’s standards for working hours, pay, health and safety/safe working conditions. In Thailand, where the company works with five contractors, auditors found a lack of transparency in hour and wage records likely due to the employment of undocumented immigrants.
In Indonesia, where wages have risen as much as 40 percent since 2012, it continued to see restrictions on workers’ collective bargaining rights. It praised its partners in Cambodia, including one participating in the Better Work Cambodia project, which was set up under a trade agreement with the United States and is administered by the International Labour Organization.
