COMMENT: Is the recently released Baptist World Aid’s Electronics Industry Trends report a cheap publicity stunt riddled with errors, or a serious exposure of consumer electronics and appliance practises.
The Baptist World Aid’s Electronics Industry Trends report claims to evaluate whether raw materials used in products like Thermomix or a Go Pro camera were obtained using slave labour, the organisation who have gone out of their way for two years running to generate publicty off the back of the IT and CE industries appears to be lacking credibility in the way that they have taken pot shots at Companies.
The report graded 56 companies from A to F on the strength of their labour rights management systems to mitigate the risk of forced labour, child labour and exploitation in the supply chain.
Where one starts to question the report is the fact that some brands have been rated ahead of others despite the products coming out of the same factories. Companies that have not supplied information but are seen as credible manufacturers have been slammed in the report which appears to be more about generating publicity for an organise that appears to thrive on the cheap publicity stunts they manufacture.
Questionable Rankings Report:
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It was only a few months ago that Baptist World Aid, claimed in another publicity exercise, that there was an enormous pool of funds that poor nations could use for development, but due to the actions of corrupt institutions similar to the ones outlined in their Electronics Industry Trends report including some Australian companies this aid was not reaching those in need.
Instead of targeting corrupt politicians, FIFA executives or government employees that choose to target manufacturers and Companies who are investing billions in manufacturing processes.
The CE and appliance industry is riddled with brands who use the same source manufacturers to deliver products, whether it be a Hitachi, LG or Samsung TV coming off the same production or a Kogan Soniq or Sony sound system.
The report found 64 per cent of those surveyed showed some improvement while 9 per cent showed significant improvement compared to the previous year’s report, including Dick Smith, BlackBerry and Garmin.
Hisense, Palsonic and Polaroid were named among the worst offenders with an F rating, while Vorwerk, owners of the popular Thermomix, were awarded a D-.
The median grade for the 2016 report was C suggesting workers remain overworked and underpaid working long shifts with no overtime pay, little rest and wages so low families struggle to make ends meet. This lack of a living wage was a top concern as it meant workers still would not be able to afford the basics – food, water, shelter and electricity.
Hisense, one of the brands targeted by Baptist World Aid refused to supply information to BWA so they were instantly given a bad rating.
But a search of the web would reveal that this Company who employ 76,000 people in their manufacturing plants, were last year voted the best employer in China. Several global retailers sell products manufactured by Hisense Companies.
Last week leading global research group Frost & Sullivan recognised Hisense with the 2015 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Competitive Strategy Innovation and Leadership. They said that Hisense’s game-changing technology and expansion strategies have helped the Chinese company grow faster than the rest of the market overall.
They have been praised for their treatment of employees and the environment that their employees work in.
Frost + OSullivan went on to say that by investing heavily in R&D (5 percent of its $16 billion revenue) and developing cutting-edge technology and manufacturing processes the Chinese Company whose manufacturing processes are regularly audited by global retailers had become a leading global Company.
BWA also claimed that “Disappointingly, a number of Australian brands including Kogan, Soniq and Palsonic were among the worst performers” receiving D- and F grades.
What is interesting is that brands like Soniq and Palsonic, along with Panasonic and Polaroid use the same factories to manufacture their goods yet they all get different rankings.
Palsonic TV product sold in Australia was being manufactured by a Company that closed down 12 months ago.
Both Polaroid and Panasonic use Companies like Compul to manufacture components with products being manufactured on the same production lines. Polaroid gets an F ranking while Panasonic gets a B +.
What BWA has not done, is name one single manufacturing plant where employees are being abused.
Dick Smith, which is now in receivership, was named as the Australian stand out moving from a D grade to a B-
What is not identified whether the improvement was for Dick Smith House brand TV’s that come out of a KONKA manufacturing plant, or whether the improvement was for their cables and house brand sound gear which come out of the same plant as some of the gear sold by Kogan.
BWA who has successfully sucked in media organisations to publish their press releases in Australia claims that the companies which failed to be transparent or take part in the survey included Dyson, Whirlpool and Kogan which were slapped with a D along with Capital Brands.
Apple, Microsoft, Acer, Intel, LG and Samsung all received a B+ despite some LG and Samsung products coming out of the same Chinese, Malaysian and Vietnamese manufacturing plants as those brands ranked with a D.
Gershon Nimbalker from Baptist World Aid Australia said ” I am not terribly surprised that products come out of the same plants. What we are trying to do is grade people on the strength of their systems”
When it was pointed out that brands like Soniq, Kogan, Palsonic had no manufacturing systems and that they simply collected orders from retailers and then placed manufacturing orders on Chinese factories he said “I understand where you are coming from. The difference we are trying to pick up on is to ensure that Companies have good process from the mines to the smelters to the manufacturing processes”.
