• In 2009 FWF conducted a study that focused on wage levels in several cities that are key for China’s garment industry. According to the findings from this study, legal minimum wages for regular working hours were only about 60% of the amount that would be sufficient to meet workers’ basic needs. Payment of minimum wages, therefore, cannot be a satisfactory benchmark for compliance with the FWF Code of Labour Practices in China. FWF expects companies to commit to wage levels that provide workers the means to live in decent conditions with their families. Download the report in Englishor Chinese.

• In May 2010, a meeting for auditors and stakeholders was held in Hong Kong. Download the report here.

• Download the country plan 2010 for China here.
• The country study for China was last updated in November 2008. In March 2009 FWF published a paper on the effects of the financial crisis on working conditions in Chinese the garment industry.
• In September 2009 FWF published a paper on best practices in factory training in China. Content of this paper was taken from discussions during a seminar on factory training organised by FWF in Hong Kong in March 2009. This seminar was visited by fifteen NGOs and three academics from Hong Kong and mainland China.

A good resource for China is the report by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) on labour standards in China, which was published in May 2010.

China is a key country for FWF in numerous ways. China has globally emerged as the biggest exporter of garment products, turning the country from a poor developing country into an economic transition state. Since the establishment of the Open Door Policy, the Chinese garment and textile industry has seen an unprecedented rise in foreign investment. The garment industry is still of vital importance to the Chinese economy. Since 2004, FWF affiliates have increasingly been sourcing from China. This rise is accompanied by an increase in monitoring activities by FWF affiliates. Of all audits in 2008, over 60% were carried out in China. FWF affiliates source mainly from key industrial areas such as the Pearl River Delta, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai and Zhejiang.

China is a challenging country for FWF affiliates to effectively implement the Code of Labour Practices. The overall level of working conditions is low. The right to freedom of association and collective bargaining is severely limited by law, wages for standard working weeks tend to be below legal minimum wages to keep costs low; excessive overtime is widespread due to serious labour shortages and high pressure on delivery times.

As the CSR industry mushroomed in China, audit fraud spread. Factory owners bribe auditors and practices of falsification of documents and coaching of workers are quickly becoming standard.

Loopholes in the Chinese legal and economic system further complicate the process of code implementation. For example, the Chinese household registration system means that migrant workers lose their accumulated social security benefits when they move back to their home province. Factory managers often take this as a reason not to pay social security for migrant workers, nor do they offer adequate compensation.  

Finally, cultural differences tend to make it difficult for FWF member companies to cooperate with factory owners on long term processes which should lead to improved labour conditions.

FWF currently works with twelve Chinese auditors who have been trained and are able to carry out FWF audits throughout entire China.

From 2005 to 2009 FWF invested in audit quality and building sufficient capacity. Currently the number of auditors is sufficient to meet the demand of FWF and its affiliates.

FWF has one female complaints handler who is based in Guangdong (South China).

As Hong Kong allows for more freedom compared to mainland China, many labour NGOs are based in Hong Kong. FWF has an ongoing dialogue with most of these organisations. FWF is in contact with IHLO (Hong Kong Liaison Office of the international trade union movement). There has been no recent contact between FWF and the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions and the Chinese Manufacturers' Association of Hong Kong.

In mainland China FWF has established contact with grassroots labour NGOs in Guangdong province, Shanghai and Beijing. NGOs in Mainland China have to conform with the harmonious society model and do not have much freedom to operate. They are therefore less. FWF is in contact with CNTAC (China National Textile and Apparel Council) which is based in Beijing. There has been no recent contact between FWF and the All-China Federation of Trade Unions which is a state-controlled union.