Businesses have been urged to pay more attention to promoting
reproductive health for women working in their supply chains in
developing countries.
The US-based Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) says big brands
rarely put enough pressure on supplier factories to provide female
employees with health checks and advice on family planning, HIV/Aids
and cervical and breast cancer, even though this would result in less
absenteeism, greater productivity, higher-quality work, and lower staff
turnover.
BSR came to its conclusions after making 29 prearranged factory visits
in China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, the Philippines and Vietnam. About
half were in the apparel sector, and all supplied BSR’s 250 corporate
members.
Monitors found some instances of good practice, such as one unnamed
footwear company that set up a mobile reproductive health clinic
offering gynaecological and family planning services to nearly 200
workers a month. ‘Notable strides’ have been made since BSR last looked
at the issue in 2002, but many women workers still lack access to such
services. Reproductive health, therefore, ‘remains a neglected issue
along the global supply chain’.
The key to providing health services in factories, says BSR, is to
ensure they are on offer at least monthly and at points close to where
workers congregate, such as a canteen.
BSR believes promoting female health is especially important in
developing countries, where women account for a disproportionately
large percentage of the workforce in manufacturing for export markets.
It offers no figures to confirm that providing health advice enhances
business performance, but reports that ‘without exception’ the factory
managers it interviewed agreed with the supposition. Despite this, male
managers do not think women’s health issues are especially important,
and need encouragement from companies that buy from them, it adds.
