Social Auditing in Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey Results from survey and case study research

Auditing and certification systems have been growing rapidly in developing countries, sometimes at their own initiative and sometimes at the behest of a 'western' multinational companies or NGOs. South Africa's wine industry, for example, has established the Wine Industry Ethical Trade Association in cooperation with trade unions, employers, NGOs and the government. It carries out audits of local producers and certifies compliance with the Labour Code and international standards. In Kenya, the horticulture sector established the Kenya Flower Council, which provides certification and consulting services to member companies so they can meet the international standards demanded by their buyers. Thus, a rapid proliferation in private inspection is occurring and increasingly Ministries of Labour will need to examine and consider the implications of private inspection initiatives for their own activities. As mentioned, auditing and certification systems have developed in part as a response to weaknesses in national regulation. At the same time, these systems have also developed within the larger framework of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), in this case responding to increasingly vocal demands for accountability on the part of lae corporations. Companies such as those mentioned above have come under increasing pressure to improve labour standards in their respective global supply chains. One of the ways they have sought to do this is through the monitoring f code of conduct implementation. Yet the development of these monitoring programmes raises a numberof importantquestions with regard to how workplaces are monitored and who is responsible for monitoring them.These questions naturally address governments, employers' and workers' organisations, as all three are involved inlabour inspection initiativs to varying degrees.