Compliance is a farce. Retailers and consumers demand the lowest prices; prices that force manufacturers into lowering costs in order to stay in business. The same retailers and consumers become morally infuriated by "below standards working conditions" in developing economies and demand that manufacturers invest considerable amounts to comply with an often arbitrary and blindly applied set of rules. Finally, the third party companies that conduct most of the audits are only as accurate in their reports as their last under-the-table envelope permits.

The truth is: faceless retail corps. driven by bottom line profit targets and the painfully uninformed consumers they service are making disparate demands: invest to raise worker welfare well beyond the normal standard of living in the given market, and cut your costs by 20%. And PS. don't believe a word you read in any third party audit report.

Good points the problem extends to mom and pops with faces who have no way off knowing the true status of the workers who supply their wares. The only way to fix this problem would be some sort of global labor code and minimum wage. Unfortunately I don't see how this would be enforced and I am not clear that it would be a net benefit to developing countries anyway.

You may be shocked to learn , these child labourers are happy to earn money, so they can help put food on the table...is that so wrong?

We sit here in our three car, three tv,three of everything society, telling the developing nations how to behave, that they have to consume less, cause the environment is getting wrecked.

Yet we are the ones that consume the most, and demand the most value for the least price.

It's like the mismanaged war on drugs. Get rid of the demand, and the supply will go away

The Larger Corporations can lower cost and be compliant because they pass the cost of Compliance on to the suppliers not the consumers. All of the Big Box Stores practice this.

The smaller companies that are currently sourcing product overseas, will tend to go with a trading company. When they make the annual trip to "Inspect the factories" the trading company will take them to the "Model" factory.

While there, the Importer of Record will see how wonderful the way of life is for the factory worker. And how the factory is compliant in every way.

Unless you actually hire somebody in that country as a full time employee (and even then you can not trust them) a company may never get a full picture of where the goods come from.

And you are totally right. Compliance is a farce. China is still not allowing third party security inspections and validations for U.S. Customs purposes. Even with the possibility of losing money and orders from prospective new partners, China will never fully comply with any worldwide Labor criteria.

A good customer of mine once told me "If a Chinese Executive tells you 'Do not worry, I have taken care of it!' check for your wallet. You just had your pocket picked."