Are you a son of a beast? A new take on corporate codes of conduct...

Disobedient workers are 'sons of beasts',  apparently.

A number of employees of a south China factory have been fired after refusing to sign guarantees in which they have to declare they are "sons of a beast" if they break their commitments to the company, reported Guangzhou-based Yangcheng Evening News.

The company in Shenzhen city, whose name was not fully revealed in the newspaper report, requires it employees to sign written pledges that contain more than 30 articles including "loyalty to the factory" and "be respectful to superiors."

The fifteenth article has caused the most controversy. It requires applicants to swear that if they break any of the articles they are "chu sheng" or 'born by a beast' which usually refers to a farm animal. The curse is serious in Chinese language.

Some 200 employees have signed the agreement — those who refused were fired.

No legalese or beating about the bush in this particular code of conduct then...

Some compare chu sheng (which on its own means "livestock") to the English insult "son of a bitch" (although there already is a direct version of that — or gou niang yang de).

But in Chinese the phrase carries much more gravity — people both young and old would be very upset, even enraged, if this slur was slung in their direction.

It's a much more severe insult than, say, "you are my grandson" (or ni shi wo sun zi), but not quite on the same level as something like "**** your mother" or cao ni ma) or "**** eight generations of your ancestors" (or cao ni ba bei zi zu zong).

From www.shanghaiist.com

Paul French, China Editor

The Financial Times serves up another BP beating

Those of you that read the old pink 'un will have notices an almost unhealthy obsession with BP's
travails in recent months. For the latest, mostly rehashed allegations, see:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/4cd813b2-8dff-11db-ae0e-0000779e2340.html

and then:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/b77c5102-8ec1-11db-a7b2-0000779e2340.html

The first post is on Alaska, the second link is to the story on Texas City in today's FT.

So what is behind all this? Is the FT simply outraged at BP's prior claims to social and environmental responsibility and is now determined to make an example of them? Or is the
case genuinely so shocking it warrants constant revisiting? (there is a case for saying that).

Industry experts have long told me the company had a reputation for slap dash safety, while climate villain Exxon's record is generally much better, at least on the human side.

Be interesting to see if BP ever advertises again in the FT.

We have done our 3 articles in one issue on the BP issues recently, not much new to report, except the recent settlement with the family of two victims:

http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4729&ContTypeID=32

And here is what we ran on BP in November's issue:

http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4664

and:

http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4625

Last but not least, here is Mallen Baker's piece on both BP and Exxon:

http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4654

Comments from blog readers welcomed, why is the FT so obsessed with BP?

Toby Webb, Editor

Santa goes all anti-graft

Transparency International have a new viral animation about which features Santa 
tackling customs corruption.

It's quite well done, and shows what the web and technology can do for NGO 
campaigning on these sorts of issues.

It the kind of thing companies can send around to raise awareness of these issues. 

Sterling festive work TI!  

http://www.transparency.org/content/download/12516/123287/version/2/file
/ti_santaclaus.swf (flash-file)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9HehAO6leY


Toby Webb, Editor 

Hiring in China ain't easy...nor is being a human rights lawyer here

A new survey from the Association of Search and Selection Consultants and Maxima regarding China:

82% of fraud cases in China involve employees
23% of applicants use false names
43% admitted to accepting secret commissions or kickbacks
29% admitted to expense account fraud
27% admitted to false invoicing
19% of applicants lied about their criminal
records

HR managers for big brands in China have their work cut out!

Also, According to the Los Angeles Times, new rules quietly adopted in China are likely to have a chilling effect on lawyers who represent political protesters, Human Rights Watch warns in a report being released in Hong Kong this week. The regulations require that lawyers representing political protesters be "helpful to the government," share otherwise-confidential information about their clients with prosecutors, and be of "good political" quality, generally a euphemism for dedication to the ruling Communist Party.

Paul French, China Editor

Tata and the Singur project

A horrific sight awaited me outside my window as I awoke this morning. I saw that a part of the large community sports ground opposite my building was being dug up. It seemed to be part of some kind of planned work. Later, I found out that the local MP is planning a four-storeyed gymnasium in one corner of the ground.

So, tomorrow, the Congress (ruling party of Maharashtra) has called a protest rally to save the ground, which has been a long-time favourite with local cricket-lovers and joggers/walkers. The Congress, undoubtedly, is more interested in the matter as the MP behind the project is from the Shiv Sena, a rival party in the state.

Things have taken such a political twist in another state as well - West Bengal. The matter of West Bengal's Singur district has become a political battlefield now, with most parties looking for their 15 minutes of fame by expressing their views on the matter.

The case: the left government of West Bengal has given around 1000 acres of land in Singur to Tata Motors for the construction of a manufacturing site that will produce India's cheapest car (Rs 1,00,000 per car). Work has already begun on this project but now the opposition party in the state, Trinamool Congress has launched a protest on behalf of farmers from Singur who claim that agricultural land is being used for the project. Apparently, only 60 acres of the 1,000 acres of land being used to set up the factory is barren; the rest are a combination of farmland (some for three-crop cultivation), wetland, temple site, Hindu cremation site etc.

Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee is on hunger strike to protest this alleged injustice. Renowned social activist Medha Patkar, who has been banned from entering Singur, is also refusing to eat and drink. The ruling left government, which has been criticised for pandering to corporate interests contrary to its ideologies, has called both protesters to the table but they refuse. At the centre in Delhi, the opposition BJP party has launched an attack on the left for ignoring Singur's farmers. Work, meanwhile, on the project continues as the state government thinks this is good investment for West Bengal. They claim to have paid most farmers a more than handsome compensation for their land.

In all this, the only silent party that everyone is waiting to hear from is the Tata group. Though there have been some comments from the Tata Motors chairman on how they do everything according to the rulebook, those comments still remain at best, non-specific. Their showroom in West Bengal's capital, Kolkata, was ransacked; protesters who took to the streets were beaten by the police; and, life in Kolkata has been brought to a standstill on more than one occassion by protesters and political activists. The Tatas remain silent despite all this.

Their silence caused much annoyance in January, when in a similar land acquisition debate, 12 tribal people were shot at by the police in Kalinganagar (Orissa state) when they protested alleged land grabbing by the state government for industrial purposes. Tata Steel was one of the big land buyers in that case.

But this time, with things taking such a high-profile political turn, and the media closely monitoring the issue, it will become incumbent upon the Tatas to come forth and make clear their position at some point. After being revered in India for their community work, an accusation of land grabbing and destruction of people's livelihoods will be a shameful blot on their whiter than white reputation. Also, they may not relish the idea of being at the centre of a political tug-of-war.

Poulomi Saha, India Editor, Mumbai

Another day, another set of sweatshop accusations

The BBC has just covered War on Want's new report on Bangladesh wages for contractors to UK brands:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6219274.stm

It probably is more complicated than the BBC or the NGO takes time to explain, but keeps the pressure on big brands and their supply chains in the public eye.

Next month we'll publish an interview with the boss of the Ethical Trading Initiative, Dan Rees, a group of which some companies in the story are members.

Toby, Editor

Unethical American Express?

After recently interviewing Tamsin Smith, of RED, (see: http://www.ethicalcorp.com/content.asp?ContentID=4693&ContTypeID=61 for the podcast) a collaboration of American Express, Gap, Motorola, and Apple on tackling HIV/Aids in Africa, I signed up for the American Express RED AMEX card.

AMEX were extremely professional in their handling of things. Except one small yet vitally important point if corporate responsibility in financial services is ever to really gain traction - unethical opt ins.

To explain, I am sure most readers will know the trick most companies, including all the banks and many retailers are now employing to squeeze some extra profit out of consumers. It's called payment protection, or extra insurance. Basically its the same thing - buy a 200 quid product and lose it, and your 5 pounds a month 'extra' insurance policy will cover it (even if your household insurance might cover it).

With financial products, of course, its about if you lose your job or get struck down by illness yada yada. The financial and consumer regulators in the UK are now wise to the most onerous schemes and have cracked down, a bit.

Yet the irony of having AMEX put the insurance on my new card at a monthly charge when I specifically HAD not asked for it, while signing up for an ethical product, is not lost on me. Sneakily, they do it in a separate letter, which arrives several days before the card and is littered with confusing jargon and layout. Evidently this is in the hope the consumer will be confused and then will forget about the letter. The charge is added to the card 'automatically', according to the terms and conditions, so many wouldn't notice it.

Upon taking this up with AMEX I was told that it was another department that deals with it (like I care as a customer, I want the brand representative I speak to to sort it, not to be put on hold) then that department, with a hard voiced nasal representative, informed me that it must have been since I had ticked the box on their website. While I am 100% sure I did not, since I am so aware of such scams I spent several minutes scouring the website to make sure I had not done so.

There's no chance this was my mistake, (another application in a fictional name proved this to me), and so if I am right, this is decidedly dodgy practice by a well known brand that ought to know better. Perhaps this is how they fund their RED donations? I surely hope not.

Toby Webb, Editor

Rumours rumours, everywhere, and much claret to drink

Last week on Friday we had one our lunches with key contacts, apeing how private eye, the magazine we love, do it for story ideas. Damn good fun, and lots of useful information from the folks around the table. All off the record, so one can't name names.

Interesting to hear what some NGO types think of Fairtrade, and answers on a postcard about which big NGO is debating whether to take money from business or not.

One of the most interesting topics for debate, (from the 6 of us, half were from non-profits, one think tanker and two hacks) was whether NGOs can both campaign and collaborate. Greenpeace's experience is definately mixed, and FoE don't really bother. WWF is the test case, was the consensus around the table, and the mixed signals business complains about from them are the main part of the problem, apparently.

More to come on this topic, and perhaps an article on WWF on the subject at some point. And, I found out you cannot recycle VHS video tapes. Bugger, readers, do you have any suggestions for my favourite films collection, now useless since my video broke a year ago?

Toby, Editor