This Second Compliance Synthesis reports reflects the findings of Better Work Nicaragua’s assessment of 25 factories, covering the period from January 2014 to January 2015. Of these factories, 20 were assessed more than once: 12 were assessed twice, and 8 were assessed three times. These factories employ 40,776 workers, of which 21,413 are women. The Better Work Nicaragua programme is currently covering 58% of the companies in the industry and 69.51% of the total workforce in the apparel manufacturing industry.
This second Compliance Synthesis Report reflects an overall improvement in compliance. Highlighted in the results of the assessments are the following findings:
♦ As in the previous baseline report, no evidence of child labour or forced labour was found in the factories covered in this report.
♦ Regarding Freedom of Association, the implementation of clauses in collective bargaining agreements was once again the area in which there were the highest levels of noncompliance. One factory was found be non-compliant in Union Operations, by interfering with workers who were seeking to communicate with their union representatives. Two factories have remediated non compliances regarding discriminatory dismissals of workers for union activities.
♦ The area where the most and highest levels of non-compliance continue to be found is Occupational Safety and Health, particularly Working Environment and Worker Protection. There were notable improvements, however, in Emergency Preparedness and Chemical Safety.
♦ In Compensation, the areas in which there was the highest non-compliance (24%) was in Wage Information, Use and Deductions, and in the payment of social security and other benefits.
♦ Contracts and Human Resources had a 48% non-compliance rate in Dialogue, Discipline and Disputes.
♦ In Working Time, non-compliance in overtime increased from the previous report.
Compliance synthesis reports for each of its country programmes, presenting analysis of non-compliance at the aggregate level. The goal of these reports is to provide transparent information for all programme stakeholders regarding working conditions in the factories participating in the programme.