4. Case study: Top Toy, Brio and Coop in China - Swedwatch

than many other company codes in that it calls for living wages. Intergroup encourages the
suppliers to pay wages that cover employees' basic needs and some additional income on top
of this.
Christian Jakobsson, the manager of Intergroup in Hong Kong estimates that minimum wages
in Guangdong are wages that you can live on. The reasoning behind this is built on the
information from the Chinese authorities, which according to Christian Jakobsson should
know best. Intergroup has not done any judgement of its own in the area of living wages.
During 2003, Intergroup carried out inspections of how all suppliers follow the code of
conduct. Out of the 52 toy suppliers in the whole of Asia, 43 suppliers were approved of
without any remark, six were “not quite approved of” and two were “not approved of” 123 .
According to Christian Jakobsson, for those suppliers that were “not quite approved of”,
Intergroup will make action programmes that will be verified within four to nine months.
Several of the suppliers that SwedWatch checked had passed the Intergroup inspections
without any remark. According to Åke Natt och Dag, environmental and quality manager of
Coop, the violation in most cases regard the working hours.
– The management and the workers have the same interest, since they wish to work as much
as possible and earn a maximum during a limited period of time, stated Åke Natt och Dag.
According to the code of Intergroup, the workers have the right to one day's rest per week,
something that four out of the six examined Coop suppliers violate according to HKCIC
interviews.
Christian Jakobsson informed SwedWatch that Intergroup demands the factory management
to ensure that the code of conduct are translated and studied with the participation of the
employees. According to Åke Natt och Dag, the code should be posted on the plants’ notice
boards. SwedWatch could not however see the code at any suppliers that we visited. HKCIC
interviews with the employees also showed that none of the employees had heard about the
Intergroup code.
– We are part of the problem since we buy these products. The consumers are also part of the
problem. However we also try to be part of the solution, since we forward these demands,
Åke Natt och Dag said.
Information to the consumers
Coop has general comprehensive information about environment and ethics on their website,
but nothing regarding specific demands on work conditions within the supply chain 124 .
Neither is there any information about their code of conduct or monitoring of the code.
Suppliers in China
Coop buys toys from six of the suppliers which participate in HKCIC study, supplier A, B, C,
G and H. Detailed accounts of these suppliers and how they follow the code of conduct of
Coop/Intergroup are given below.
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