Lessons in decent work

As Policy Officer in the TUC’s EU and International Relations Department,  Sam Gurney needed no persuading of the importance of taking part in ETI’s Decent Work project to promote worker–management dialogue: “Given the number of ETI members sourcing from China, and the volume of production involved, it’s crucial that ETI develops work to help members apply the Base Code there –  particularly as China still lacks independent worker organisation at the workplace level, despite recent developments.”

The Decent Work project formally ended in 2011, but the issues it addresses are still highly relevant, and not just within China. Sam is keen to share his personal views and experience of the project, as well as contributing to wider learning from Decent Work. “I have learnt a lot from my involvement in the project. But arguably it involved a high time commitment for what has so far resulted in limited improvements in terms of worker representation and involvement at factory level. This makes it even more important that the experiences of those who participated in the Decent Work project, both in the UK and China, are shared and that they inform future collaborative work at ETI as well as individual company efforts.”

One of the key lessons Sam has come away with is that preparation is key. And the starting point is to make sure everyone understands the context in which they are operating. 

Sam notes that, even before project activities began, the UK partners should have done more work to establish a common understanding of the situation in China regarding workers’ rights and their ability to organise. This includes more understanding of both the official legal position and the reality of what is happening on the ground. “In hindsight I was naïve to think that colleagues already understood the nature of the existing ‘union’ structures in many workplaces – such as the fact that ‘union reps’ were likely either to be managers or to be handpicked by managers, or the fact that the legal position is evolving quite rapidly in some areas, but not in others.”

This preparatory work also applies to understanding the issues for any local partners.  It is still early days in developing a more independent civil society in China, which means that any tripartite projects – will necessarily involve working with unions and NGOs in Hong Kong. However this can present practical challenges and can impact on delivery in unanticipated ways. “Given their relative size in comparison to the scale of issues in China, there are capacity issues with our NGO and trade union counterparts in Hong Kong, and this had an impact on the timescales in which project activities such as training could be delivered . We needed to factor this into our planning much earlier. We should also have done more to make sure our in-country partners could see a real benefit from committing their time and energy to this type of project.”

Another lesson that Sam is keen to highlight is that ETI member companies shouldn’t underestimate the work involved in convincing suppliers to participate in this type of project. “Decent Work helped me realise that, in some cases, the direct leverage companies have with their suppliers is less than I had thought. But it also showed me that where members worked with others, could identify who in supplier companies actually has the power to commit to action and spent time explaining to them what involvement in the project required, then real progress is possible.”

It also became clear to Sam that openness is key: “Companies shouldn’t seek to bring in suppliers without being open about where the project might lead. For example, suppliers have to accept that they can’t control who becomes a workers’ representative. Or participation in the project might mean them having to establish a system for worker– management dialogue.” Not being open from the beginning led to considerable time and resources being spent trying to coax suppliers along who ultimately did not complete the project.

One thing that the UK project group agreed would have helped engage both Chinese suppliers and local partners, is if they had spent more time preparing an agreed ‘business case’. “All ETI members sourcing in China should be supporting this type of project anyway, as part of their work to ensure compliance with the Base Code. But a clearer explanation for suppliers about the benefits of genuinely engaging with their workforces might have helped more suppliers overcome their reluctance to participate. This is something ETI’s new guide to Freedom of Association should be able to help with.” 

Despite the challenges of getting the project off the ground, project partners were successful in delivering a range of training programmes and facilitating elections for worker representatives in a number of sites. Experience during the implementation phase of the project led Sam to reflect on the key leadership and oversight role for ETI in future projects of this nature:

“The ultimate objective of this type of project is of course to gain understanding and provide lessons to help ETI members run similar projects themselves, without intensive levels of support. However it was obvious that support from ETI was needed to ensure the project was genuinely tripartite from the beginning. Similarly, everyone involved in the Decent Work project accepted the principle of ‘subsidiarity’ – ie letting the project group on the ground make key decisions and work through problems themselves. However, it was clear that without a firm lead, pressure to keep going and some direct interventions from ETI staff, things begin to drift when problems were encountered. This caused frustration and resentment among participants at different times.”

However, Sam is also keen to highlight that the fact two factories established an active project group made up of representatives of the supplier, ETI member company, NGO and Hong Kong-based union was a major step forward, and shows that colleagues can work together, build trust and in some cases deliver real results (although it was disappointing that one of the groups did not manage to resolve the problems it encountered).

On a final note, Sam’s feels the Decent Work project group could have done more to draw out and share project learning on an ongoing basis:  “The project was politically sensitive – especially at the outset – and so there were legitimate reasons for not publishing blow-by-blow updates on progress. But we should have developed a better system for sharing information with other ETI members on an ongoing basis, as well as collecting of information about other work being done by ETI members in China at the same time.”  This is something that ETI’s new approach to Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (ME&L) will help with in the future, not least by ensuring that time for reflection and information sharing are built into programme activities from the start.