FWF recently published a paper on best practices in factory training in China. The content of this paper has been taken from the seminar FWF organised in Hong Kong in March. This seminar was well attended by representatives of labour and women’s NGOs from mainland China and Hong Kong.
Ivo Spauwen (FWF verification Coordinator for China): ‘During the last five years many initiatives experimented with different factory training approaches. We have now reached the point where training has been largely accepted as part of the process of improving dialogue and participation. The challenge ahead is to link monitoring and training. Training should aim at getting workers involved in decision-making on how working conditions are to be improved after an audit has been carried out: which priorities are to be set, which timeline is realistic and what are the responsibilities of the parties involved. The ultimate objective is to enable workers to monitor their own working conditions in a setting that allows for effective workplace dialogue.’
To encourage companies to engage in factory training FWF recently adapted its manual for affiliates. Presently worker training in cooperation with local stakeholder organisations also counts towards the affiliate’s achievement of their monitoring threshold.
