SLCP continues to scale and diversify, with converged assessments supporting facilities of all sizes, deeper in the supply chain and in new sectors
The Social and Labor Convergence Program’s third annual Impact Report shows the progress made in replacing proprietary social audits with a converged tool, providing credible and actionable social and labor data across over 9,000 diverse facilities covering 6.6 million workers across the globe.
SLCP has today launched its 2023 Impact Report to showcase the rapid growth and evolution of the multi-stakeholder initiative’s work to converge stakeholders around a single social assessment that eliminates the need for duplicative social audits. The report also highlights key insights from the wealth of social and labor data gathered by the Program as well as evidence of how SLCP adoption has enabled potential resource allocation for tangible improvements in working conditions. Key findings include:
Broader and deeper use of SLCP in supply chains
Over 9000 facilities conducted an SLCP assessment in 2023, representing an annual increase of 27%. There was significant diversification in the types of facilities using the SLCP tool with over 50% of users being SMEs while 25% were facilities in Tier 2. Meanwhile 28% of SLCP assessments were in non-apparel and footwear facilities. This demonstrates the wide applicability of SLCP as a global tool that can provide harmonized data throughout the supply chain and reduce the audit burden on smaller manufacturers.
$26 million unlocked but potential for even greater savings through increased data sharing
SLCP estimates that up to $26 million USD may have been saved on audits in 2023. This is based on each facility sharing their SLCP assessments 2.5 times on average and demonstrates the benefits of a converged tool to unlock resources that can be redirected to improvement actions. SLCP calls on more brands to abandon their proprietary tools and for more standard holders to converge with SLCP. Greater adoption of SLCP’s converged tool is key to combating audit fatigue and shifting resources to much needed improvements.
SLCP identifying non-compliances and supporting facilities to improve
SLCP assessments identified a wide range of legal non-compliances, with the highest number being in the categories of working hours, wages & benefits, and health and safety. The overall number of legal non-compliances identified in SLCP assessments increased by 5% in 2023 compared to the previous year, with the average number of non-compliances per assessment rising from 9.6 to 10.1. However, facilities that were completing an SLCP assessment for the second year in a row had a lower average number of non-compliances than new facilities (9.2). This indicates that learnings from the SLCP assessment process may be supporting facilities to address non-compliance issues.
The report is available for free on SLCP’s website. SLCP will hold public webinars on 28 and 29 May to talk through some of the report’s main findings with stakeholders. Register here.
