pALACE sKATEBOARDS AND the eti base code
The Code of Conduct states that unless the countries law limits working hours ‘Suppliers shall not require an excess of a 60-hour workweek on a regularly scheduled basis.’. This means that they allow suppliers to make workers work 60-hour weeks when the ETI Base Code says it should be a maximum of 48 hours per week. This means they can have workers working 12 hours more than the recommended limit and risk workers dying of exhaustion which is not uncommon in this kind of work. I think this is extremely wrong of New Balance and they should definitely consider the affect this would have on the workers as it is not ethical. However, workers are entitled to one full day off in each seven-day week, which follows the ETI Base Code. If workers are working a 60-hour week it is unlikely that they are taking any days off.
New Balance’s Code of Conduct says that they do not stand for discrimination and that workers shall be employed, promoted and compensated based upon their ability to perform their job, rather than on the basis of gender, race, caste, sexual orientation, religious or cultural beliefs. Also, they do not do pre-employment or during-employment screening for pregnancy and there is no discrimination against workers based on political affiliation or union membership. They also do not allow behaviour that is sexually coercive, threatening, abusive or exploitative and workers shall not be subject to any physical, verbal, sexual or psychological harassment or abuse in connection with their employment. This complies with the ETI Base Code’s attitude towards discrimination and harassment, it is not permitted. It seems that they protect workers from this type of behaviour which is the ethical thing to do.
Overall I think that New Balance does comply with the ETI Base Code, their Code of Conduct addresses all of the points in the ETI Base Code and they mainly follow everything the ETI Base Code recommends. However, their Code of Conduct states that all standards set forth in their Code of Conduct are ‘subject to compliance with applicable national and local laws’ so if the local laws aren’t strict on these issues, or do not have laws to protect workers then New Balance will not necessarily be doing what they set out in their Code of Conduct so to improve they could set stricter rules themselves to ensure they are ethical.