Assessment results from factories covered in this report are largely consistent with previous baseline findings. A few key points include the following:
♦ As stated in all previous Better Work Vietnam synthesis reports, the area with the greatest number of non-compliant issues is Occupational Health and Safety. Findings are significant across all categories in this section, including emergency preparedness, chemical handling and labeling, health services and first aid, OSH management, worker protection, and working environment. Resolving some of these issues requires significant capital investments, but most can be addressed through development of comprehensive OSH management systems and regular attention to implementation, training, and communication.
♦ Excessive overtime continues to be an area of non-compliance across almost all Better Work Vietnam factories. While some factories have been able to come into compliance with daily or weekly limits, 93% are out of compliance with annual limits. The causes of this overtime clearly have many causes, due to both factory practices as well as other pressures coming from actors along the supply chain. The new labor law that will come into effect 1 May 2013 will not alter the annual limits.
♦ In the are of Core Labor Standards, this report marks a change in BWV policy regarding how to categorize and report on issues related to Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining. As of this report, non-compliance regarding the right of workers to from or join a union of their choice and the ability of unions to form or join a federation of their choice will be reported only at the national level rather than the enterprise level. At the same time, BWV will be increasing its attention to questions related to Collective Bargaining, putting greater emphasis on understanding the negotiation, decision making, and communication processes behind collective bargaining agreements. As such, future reports will have more detailed information on collective bargaining indicators.
Compliance synthesis reports for each of its country programmes, presenting analysis of non-compliance at the aggregate level. The goal of these reports is to provide transparent information for all programme stakeholders regarding working conditions in the factories participating in the programme.