Following a year of careful consideration of the ICTI CARE Process, and noting its success in meeting appropriate parameters, Wal-Mart Ethical Standards has decided to accept the work product of ICTI CARE Process audits. Wal-Mart and the ICTI CARE Process are now finalizing operational details to be communicated to suppliers. 

On the current timetable, effective 2 April 2007, Wal-Mart Ethical Standards will accept all ICTI CARE Process Seals of Compliance issued on or after 1 March 2007. Given the consistent high standards imposed by the ICTI CARE Process, Wal-Mart is willing to accept their audit results in lieu of Wal-Mart audits for participating toy factories. 

Wal-Mart joins a growing number of retailers worldwide, including Argos, ASTRA, Chelsea Stores, Costco, La Grande Recre, Tesco, Toys 'R' Us (on-line) and Woolworth, that accept the ICTI CARE Process.  Several additional major retailers are in the process of evaluation. It is hoped that the application of a common code will free up more resources to devote to capacity building and resolution of the root causes of non-compliance.

Demonstrating a strong commitment to ethical manufacturing, the US Toy Industry Association Board of Directors took the groundbreaking decision to require all TIA members to commit to a “date certain” within the ICTI CARE Process, as a condition of continuing membership.  This means that, by January 1, 2008, all members must have committed to a “date certain,” after which they will only source from factories certified by the ICTI CARE Process. That “date certain” may be as far out as 24 months after January 1, 2008 – December 31, 2009.  A “date certain” commitment will also now serve as a pre-condition for membership renewal for 2008. 

Beginning with its strong belief that this is the right thing to do and is in the best interest of members, and with the ICTI CARE Process now a fully-functioning reality, the TIA Board recognized the need to take a bold stand. This step represents an important milestone for the toy industry.  Other associations are encouraged to join TIA and the Swedish association in taking this important step forward.

TIA was one of the founders of the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) CARE Process, which seeks to ensure ethical treatment of factory workers who manufacture the industry’s toys. Over the past three years the ICTI CARE Process has made an excellent start, with well over 1,000 factories, employing more than one million workers, now in the system, and with over 75 TIA members now pledged to source only from compliant factories.

Jean-Marie Lucas; Patrick Nappez Smoby-Majorette ; Frédéric Hausemer Dorel and Monique Ansaldi.

The French Toy and Child Care Article Manufacturers Association (FJP) and the ICTI CARE Foundation held a joint seminar about the ICTI CARE Process in Paris on 23 March 2007. It was the first occasion that not only toy brands attended, but French retail representatives, along with Marie-France Touron from Initiative Clause Sociale (ICS), participated as well. Nearly thirty representatives from the brand side included Bandai, BEABA, Cesar, Corolle, Iansay, Meccano, Smoby, and Lego, among others, who were joined by retailers from Cora, Casino, and La Grande Recre.

Introductory remarks by Daniel Aboaf, Director General of FJP were followed by Stefano Bertasi, Director, Policy and Business Practices, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) with the keynote address on “Social Compliance – Burden or Business Opportunity?” which set the stage from a global perspective. Christian Ewert, President & CEO of the ICTI CARE Foundation made an in- depth presentation about what the ICTI CARE Process has achieved. Mr. Peter Trillingsgaard, Director Stakeholders of LEGO, followed and provided insights about LEGO’s CSR program and the company views about the ICTI CARE Process.

In the afternoon, Laurent Drouart from SGS gave an auditing company’s perspective. Christian Ewert reported on what SGS has done to assure a high quality factory monitoring process through carrying out QC audits. He informed the audience about the creation of a new IT Database solution which provides detailed information about the audited factories.

FJP was widely applauded for having organized the event and all participants appreciated the detailed information provided across a broad spectrum. Daniel Aboaf concluded the meeting by recommending that, “This type of seminar could serve as a good example to other associations about how to involve toy brands and retailers at the same time.”

The European TAB, meeting at the London office of the ICTI CARE Process on February 20th, went over draft proposals related to the five-year review of the Guidance Document and Checklist for ICTI CARE audits.

The Chair of the European TAB, Peter Trillingsgaard, stressed how important it is “to have truly global input into this review process. From a European perspective,” he went on, “it is important that the audit documentation remains consistent and detailed. As European brands, we rely on the accuracy of the ICTI CARE Process and we are confident that this review process will make a great system even better."

The European TAB also finalized a questionnaire that will be submitted to the six audit firms currently accredited to conduct ICTI CARE Process audits. The aim of the exercise is to explore the level of expertise and capacity for carrying out audits in Eastern Europe, where some toy manufacturing is taking place.

A member of the TAB, Wendy Phillips, said “we have to investigate this in great detail before making a decision as to whether or not to expand the ICTI CARE Process, which is perhaps the most comprehensive social compliance program in the world today. We positively affect over one million Chinese factory workers, and we need to make sure we can do the same for workers in other parts of the world before we embark on any expansion. Ensuring that there are enough qualified auditors is just the first step,” she concluded.

The European TAB will meet again in London in early May to review the feedback from the audit companies as well as viewing presentations by the International Register for Certified Auditors (IRCA) and Sedex, a secure, web-based system for companies to input data on labor standards at their production sites.

The ICTI CARE Process is putting in place a new online IT database system, which will bring significant benefits to factories, brands and retailers that are a part of the ICTI CARE Process.

The rapid growth of the ICTI CARE Process has created a need for an online IT platform to provide an electronic backbone for the factory monitoring operations and an online tool for brands and retailers to track and access audit data for their suppliers.

To kick-start the development of the system, a small working group was established in late 2006 to bring together the expertise of staff members and the Asia TAB. A comprehensive Business Needs Specification was drafted to document all the requirements of the ICTI CARE Process and its stakeholders.

These needs included:

• a tracking mechanism for factory monitoring, audit reports and corrective action plans to indicate where a factory is in the process and where it is going;
• a tool for managing contact points - factory managers, auditors, brand/retail management, external stakeholders, etc;
• a system to schedule and process audits and audit results;
• automatic allocation of individual auditors to individual factories - this is important to ensure the integrity of the audit process; and
• a high level of security to ensure that sensitive data is not compromised.

Several IT system providers were approached and assessed before a supplier was chosen. After a successful first development phase, we are now at a stage where staff of the ICTI CARE Process are busy uploading existing data onto the new system, which will be open for online factory applications in May this year.

For brands and retailers, the new system will provide significant benefits as it is possible with a few clicks to produce a list of all suppliers and access comprehensive data about each factory – basically the entire monitoring history of a factory. This list will include factories that are working towards a Seal of Compliance and factories that have been put on probation or have been terminated from the ICTI CARE Process.

For factories, the IT system is an easy way to share audit data with suppliers and to keep track of audits and contact details to be shared with the ICTI CARE Process.

All factories, brands and retailers in the ICTI CARE Process will receive further information about the new system in the coming months.

In the drive to make its operations ever more transparent, the ICTI CARE Process is now making its social compliance process available on its public website.

“The documentation, or the Process Handbook, is what we use internally to ensure that our process is consistent and fair,” said Christian Ewert, President and CEO of the ICTI CARE Process. He said the Handbook is a living document that will be expanded over time as new procedures are added to the ICTI CARE Process. 

For example, it gives a reasoned description of the Compliance and Remediation Procedure that it uses when a factory already holding a Seal of Compliance is found to be in violation of the standards set by the ICTI CARE Process. “In such cases,” he said, “our main interest is the health and welfare of the workers in the factory. We want to work with these factories to ensure that the violations are addressed and corrected without delay. The remediation process,” he went on, “can make a real difference for the workers. In cases where we find that the workers have not been paid according to the rules, we insist that the factories not only rectify this for the future, but see that the affected workers get all the back pay they are entitled to.” Mr. Ewert added.

He said the Process Handbook is a good starting point for anybody who wants to know how the ICTI CARE Process works and how it audits conditions in toy factories.

Click here to access the Process Handbook.

http://www.icti-care.org/handbook/section1.html

A revised version of the ICTI CARE Process application package is now available from the ICTI CARE Process website – www.icti-care.org. The package consists of an Application Form and an Application Guide. Factories that want to be certified in compliance with the ICTI Code of Business Practices must follow the steps outlined in this Guide.

The new Application Package is more user-friendly and provides for a seamless data transfer to the new IT system developed by the ICTI CARE Process. See separate story in this newsletter for more information about the IT system and how it benefits brands, retailers and factories alike.