Levi Strauss Foundation Grantee Roundtable: Furthering Workers’ Rights through Innovation and Collaboration
Ho Chi Minh City August 5th and 6th Day 1
Agenda – Day 1
9:15am 9:30am 10:30am 11:30am 12:00pm 1:00am 2:30pm 3:00pm 3:45pm 5:30pm Welcome (Daniel Lee) Ice Breaker (All) What we have learned so far (Ayesha Barenblat) Innovation Incubator (Scott Chang) Lunch – Riverside Café Innovation Incubator (Scott Chang) In-factory Challenges and Best Practices (Ayesha Barenblat, Small group discussion) Break In-factory Challenges and Best Practices (Ayesha Barenblat, Small group Adjourn
Informal group dinner to follow
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Welcome
Daniel Lee, Levi Strauss Foundation
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Ice Breaker
• What is the skill you are most proud of? • What are you hoping to learn from this meeting? • What would success look like by tomorrow afternoon?
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What we have learned so far
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Our best thoughts come from others. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Convening Objectives Revisited
• Assess current challenges and best practices
• Connect grantees to learn, share, and build upon one another’s work • Create a scalable, replicable and sustainable model for RR trainings
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Pre-Work
Grantees Name Gabriela Delgadillo Alshaimaa Mahmoud Mohamed Rezk Nhu Trang Nguyen Hang Thi Xuan Lan Tu Ngoc Chau Dundar Sahin Nazneen C. Huq Pei Bin Company Verite Country Bolivia Specialty Within and outside factory walls Community based training Leveraging public resources Health and Safety at the factory level In-factory compliance challenges Public, Private and NGO partnerships Leveraging international institutions Preferred Trainings Job and Supervisory Skills, Health and Safety Labor Law, Life Skills, Health & Hygiene Labor Law, Health and Safety
Land Center for Human Rights Egypt Life Center AKUT Independent Trainer BSR (Formerly The Asia Foundation) Vietnam Turkey Bangladesh China
Cambodia, Conor Boyle Better Work Vietnam, Geneva Factory Outreach Number of factories Number of employees Country 2 1 4 561 and 1150 35,000 400 to 5000 Vietnam Bangladesh China
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Typical Training
• Size of training: no more than 30-40 people • Worker Selection: ideally different lines and selected by workers or sign-up voluntarily. Usually chosen by management • Timing: 3 – 8 hours • Audience: Training at all levels, workers, supervisors and management
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Typical Topics
• Labor Law: Compensation calculation, Discrimination, Harassment
• Health: HIV/AIDS, reproductive health, nutrition, child care, OSH
• Life skills: income management, first aid • Job Skills: supervisory training, communication • Workplace cooperation: Dispute Resolution, averting strikes
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Holistic Approach
Management • Buy-in • Systems • Integration Supervisors • People management • Communication • Negotiation • Root cause analysis • Harassment & grievances Text Workers • Workers’ rights, labor laws and social compliance • Dispute Resolution • Health & safety, HIV/AIDS, hygiene, nutrition • Life skills, income management, family / child care Text Txt Text
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Current Challenges – Grantee Prespectives
Buyer misalignment
External Pressures
Economic Crisis
Legal enforcement
Union capacity
Government engagement
FoA challenges
Time
Management buy-in
Building Trust Gender Dynamic Turnover
Internal Pressures
Worker appetite / literacy
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Current Challenges – Supplier Perspective
Feedback on Design and Delivery:
• Frequency / Duration: Longer trainings (>4hrs) preferred over shorter information sessions (>1x/6mos) • Materials and trainings need to be more customized, adapted to our knowledge level. Pre-evaluations would be helpful. • Interaction / Visuals: Interest in more pictures on leaflets distributed to workers and more participatory exercises, lectures are boring
Preferred Topics
• Both: Training to improve dialogue between supervisors and workers
• Workers: Further training on labor laws, reproductive health and HIV/AIDS prevention • Management: Production management skills, communications / worker relations, energy saving and reducing emissions, OHS
Sustainability
•Long-term support to integrate topics into internal mechanisms (e.g. new hire orientation)
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Best Practices – Grantee Prespectives
• Assure senior management buy-in: “if top management are unaware of what we were doing with the workers, it does not work” • Motivate middle management: “they face the greatest pressure. Problems of low production, absenteeism. If we motivate middle management - it will trickle down to workers” • Create a peer network: “We grew a community of workers, and also a community of managers and senior leaders – to exchange best practices” • Aim for cultural mindshifts: “We put much more attention on changing the culture at the factory”
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Best Practices – Factory Perspectives
What worked well: • Trainings and activities were well-targeted for interests and needs of workers • Health and labor law trainings have been effective and most popular Successes / Changes:
• Employees know how to access public resources (labor law, public
health)
• Management shows improved supervisory skills; enhanced management skills led to improved productivity (10 – 15%)
• Cultural / Mindset Shift shown in middle management – acceptance of RR programs and better understanding how to listen to and manage workers • Decreased conflict between workers and management due to improved awareness and relations
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Current Best Practice Definition
Pre-training Success Factors • Management buy-in • Buyer support / influence • Baseline assessment to understand gaps
Content Development • Know your audience • Topics catered to appropriate level and interest
Training • Participatory exercises • Safe environment • Leverage external experts / resources
Sustainability • Leave behind materials • Creation of a peer network • Transferring know-how and training materials to factory management • Brand collaboration (Cross Sector)
• Prepare materials that are easy to grasp
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Innovation
Method Delivery
Empower HR “I am precious” Ask – don’t push Prizes Contests
P2P Train the trainers Participatory / Interactive/ Fun Role play
Food/ Factory Success Skills beyond factory Union and govt engagement
Mobile Vans Jigsaw puzzles Soap operas Comic books/ Newsletters Cell phones/ MMS
Network of factories Community based
Topic Focus
Distribution
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Innovation Incubator
Grantees
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Rules of Innovation
1. 2. 3. 4. People deny that the innovation is required. People deny that the innovation is effective. People deny that the innovation is important. People deny that the innovation will justify the effort required to adopt it. 5. People accept and adopt the innovation, enjoy its benefits, attribute it to people other than the innovator, and deny the existence of stages 1 to 4.
Source: ©AC 2005. Inspired by Alexander von Humboldt's 'Three Stages Of Scientific Discovery', as referenced by Bill Bryson in his book, 'A Short History Of Nearly Everything'.
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Polling Exercise: Potential for Innovation
PROGRAM-BASED, “INTERNAL” INNOVATION INNOVATION WITH EXTERNAL PARTNERS
Curriculum Development Union Partnerships
Training Techniques
Collaboration with Business
Scaling Up Program Impact
Government Engagement
IT as an Enabler in Worker Rights
Public Outreach
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Sharing Innovative Practices
• Each person shares 1-2 innovative practices they have undertaken with their project • Prepared Remarks from: – Life Center – Workers’ Contests and Initiatives – Verite – Mobile Van Training – Better Work – Soap Opera and Comic Book Series – The Asia Foundation-Regular Policy Discussion and Legal aid Network
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The Asia Foundation-Regular Policy Discussion and Legal aid Network
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Multiple Objectives
• To build the capacity of migrant workers • To build the capacity of local Factory factories Service Providers • To build the capacity of service providers, both private and public Community & • To create platforms for local Network partners to work together • To support public policy Policy change Worker
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Wide Geographical Coverage
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Achievements, Impact and Successes
Multi-stakeholder Linkages
Media
Provincial Legal Aid Center
Academia
Women„s Federation
Law Firms
Labor Bureau
Legal Service Centers in universities
Support Public Policy Dialogues
Legal Services
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Engagement of Multiple Stakeholders at the Community Level
Engagement of multiple stakeholders at the community level can achieve impact beyond factory walls – Women’s Federation – Labor Union – Labor Department – Factory management – Workers – NGOs and community organizations
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Workers Take Innovative Initiatives
Migrant workers’ Newspaper
Migrant workers’ performance Troupe
Knowledge contest
Workers’ hobby groups
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Engagement of Managers & Workers in Direct Communication
• Facilitate direct discussion between workers and managers on sensitive topics such as labor laws and workers’ rights • As a result of the direct communication, conflicts between workers and management decreased apparently after the training • “We also organized labor law training in our factory before. For the same content of labor laws, however, workers trust a third-party, but not us”. Quote from factory manager at Chip Tak.
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Leveraging External Resources and Partnership
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HIV/AIDS: Leverage peer education expertise from China CDC, Marie Stopes International and UNAIDS, Melbourne University of Australia OHS: Leverage expertise from Guangdong PDA Network, China Women Workers Network, Guangdong Occupational Disease Prevention and Treatment Hospital, Guangdong Provincial Labor Union, Guangdong Women’s Federation, Ministry of Health
–
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In-Factory Challenges
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Current Challenges – Grantee Prespectives
Buyer misalignment
External Pressures
Economic Crisis
Legal enforcement
Union capacity
Government engagement
FoA challenges
Time
Management buy-in
Building Trust Gender Dynamic Turnover
Internal Pressures
Worker appetite / literacy
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Challenges Fell Under Several Key Themes…
Worker Related Issues Management Related Issues
Common Challenges
• Worker Interest (what’s in it for me?) • Literacy • Turnover • Gender Dynamic • Short term perspective (want OT, Job Security)
• Lack of a common goal (esp in terms of cost) • Building Trust and Transparency • Time Constraints
• Management Buy In • Enforcement Schemes • ROI • FoA? • Crisis mgmt approach (heightened in the economic crisis)
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Time Constraints
“Management wants trainings to take place after work hours, but workers will be too tired to concentrate.”
“Time with factories is too short to ensure long-term impact.”
--Grantee Comment
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Management Buy In
“Often the program dies at the HR manager level because they might see the program as a problem/recognition that they don’t do things well.” “Culture and perception is that empowered workers are harder to control. There is resistance to educating workers because management does not want to be challenged” --Grantee Comments
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Enforcement Schemes
“When you train the workers, it’s a catch-22 situation. You’re teaching them what they’re supposed to have, but enforcement mechanisms are not in place. “Now I have these rights… what do I do to make sure they’re respected?”
“Ministry of Labor may not have system in place to deal with complaints; union capacity and public sector aren’t always well equipped.”
--Grantee Comments
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Process for this discussion
1. Brainstorm Key Challenges & Root Cause (15 minutes) – Divide into 2 groups: one focuses on workers; another focuses on management – Each group spends 15 minutes to write down 4-5 ideas; one idea for each sheet of paper – Make the challenges as CONCRETE as possible (i.e. “workers cannot read leave-behind materials” instead of “worker literacy.”) – Pair the “surface level challenges” with what you perceive to be their root cause 2. Report Back & Prioritize Challenges (10 minutes) 3. Thinking towards Solutions (15 minutes) – Develop solutions to the challenges posed 4. Report Back on Solutions (20 minutes)
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