Fairphone’s Fair Factory Standard
Over 18 million people work in electronics manufacturing, and a vast majority of them do so under terrible working conditions, including poverty wages, forced labor and the risk of chemical poisoning. Often, workers are unable to express their opinions or concerns, and risk losing their job if they ask for union support. Many companies have codes of conduct and audits, but these don’t address systemic issues like low wages and excessive overtime. This is not to mention the environmental impact of the manufacturing process, which pollutes the environment, emits high amounts of greenhouse gasses, increases water scarcity and fills landfills with waste.
The electronics industry is notorious for poor working conditions: Child labor, hazardous working conditions, extreme poverty Here are just a few of the reasons why we need to do things differently.
1. Over 18 million people work in the electronics manufacturing industry and another 100 million work in the mining of materials used for manufacturing. They face various inhumane conditions.
2. Many companies work with codes of conduct and audits, but these often don’t address the more pressing and systemic issues like excessive overtime and low wages.
3. Often, workers are unable to express their opinion or concerns and risk losing their job if they ask for union support.
We go beyond traditional auditing, partnering with our suppliers on critical topics, including living wages, worker voice and representation, health and safety, and nature. We co-create and co-invest in improvement plans based on thorough assessments and workers’ surveys. Our approach puts workers and their needs first. This is not limited to our direct suppliers. We actively work on these issues with indirect suppliers of components and materials as well. This helps increase our impact throughout the entire supply chain.
A living wage affords someone a decent standard of living, so that they can pay for rent, food, clothing and other necessities, and build actual savings over time, all without having to work inhumanely long hours. In 2019, Fairphone pioneered the first living wage program in the electronics industry. Closing the gap towards living wages costs as little as $1.20 per smartphone. Since then, we have set up living wage bonuses for the workers of our smartphone suppliers, headphone suppliers, and component suppliers. The bonus results in up to one month of extra salary for a worker earning the minimum wage. Read more here and here.
We guide our suppliers and sub-suppliers in setting up worker representation systems with democratic elections, something other companies don’t usually do. We help open new communication and grievance channels, to help workers safely and effectively voice their concerns and influence decision-making at their workplace. Furthermore, we actively invest in implementing workers’ suggestions for improvements, alongside our suppliers— from offering training courses to renovating dormitories.
Our production partner for our smartphones has a SA8000 certification, one of the highest standards for safe and decent working conditions. The production partner for our headphones is audited on health and safety through BSCI. As mentioned earlier, Fairphone also supports indirect component suppliers beyond the final assembly sites, to realize improvements to the workplace. Fairphone is a founding member of the Towards Zero Exposure program that aims to protect workers from hazardous chemical exposure.
Combating climate change concerns every link in the supply chain; many of our (sub-) suppliers have started setting GHG targets in line with the latest climate sciences (and SBTi approved) guidelines, and reducing their energy consumption. They have obtained ISO14001 and ISO50001 certification at Fairphone’s request, and made a commitment to sourcing only renewable energy. Find out more about Fairphone’s climate action and Net Zero commitment here. Beyond climate action, we pay close attention to other impacts from manufacturing on nature including waste, water and chemicals.
We engage with other companies and stakeholders such as NGOs, unions and scholars to share insights and experiences and drive positive impact in the entire industry. Networks Fairphone is active in include:
Want to know more?
Read our latest impact stories on our Blog>>
Follow our progress in our latest Impact Report >>
For our policies, life cycle assessments, and further data and reports, head over to Resources and Policies >>
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