Jack Wolfskin stopped working with four manufacturing facilities 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.
Based in Germany, Jack Wolfskin sold €351 million in outdoor apparel, footwear and equipment in 2012. The company or its outside auditing firm conducted a total of 71 audits and 22 follow-up visits in 2012. The audits covered all countries where the company manufactures, all three of the company’s product divisions as well as existing and new suppliers and their sub-manufacturers. All of the company’s suppliers have been audited by independent auditors at least once, and often two or three times, during the past three years.
The company’s 52-page report for 2012 shows that nearly half of Jack Wolfskin’s suppliers received between 7 and 10 points for their overall performance, 30 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, audits in China found there was serious need for improvement in the areas of management methods, working hours/pay and the right to collective representation.
“As a result, Jack Wolfskin will attempt to encourage as many suppliers as possible to take part in “Workplace Education Training” offered by the Fair Wear Foundation in 2013,” the report reads. That coursework includes instruction on grievance procedures and the rules for establishing and governing trade unions as well as conflict resolution.
In July, 2012, Jack Wolfskin offered Chemical Health and Safety training sessions to its Chinese footwear suppliers to address continuing health and safety issues uncovered in its audits.
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 attributable 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.
