（WRIP）（一）
Many factories in China pay wages below the legal requirements and work hours above both legal limits(40 hours a week, 36 hours per month overtime) and most company established limits(60 hours per week).Efforts to address these common non-compliance issues have primarily included periodic factory auditsevaluations by company or 3rd party monitors accompanied with corrective action plans,Loss of business for failing to correct any identified deficiencies or,factory termination.
In response to this common method of detecting non-compliance issues and pushing factories for corrective action,the majority of factories have created fraudulent records that show compliance to either the local law or a company's code of conduct.Further,to avoid detection of these fraudulent records,factories have coached their workers on how to answer questions posed by company monitors as well as modifying anyall factory recordsdocuments that might prove the time card and payroll records were falsified.
The efforts on behalf of factories to hide the true wages and working hours have made it extremely difficult to assess compliance and to monitor progress against local law andor a company code of conduct. In other words,most companies are not able to determine the actual wages and work hours for their factories in China.
WRIP Program
To address this industry-wide challenge,Sears Holdings Corporation developed the Wage Research and Improvement Program(WRIP) to work with venders and factories in China to evaluate the true working hours and wages under the goal of continuous improvement.The WRIP program,formally launched in 2004,attempts to partner with select vendors to gather more accurate wage and hour information for their factories so that we may work with them to develop detailed corrective action plans that have a higher likelihood for implementation and ongoing success.
In exchange for longer corrective action timelines and consultation on ways to move into compliance,the progress requires vendorsfactories to agree to provide complete information to Sears Holdings Corporation and to make gradual progress on both working hours and wage payments according to a detailed improvement plan.All WRIP Improvement Plans submitted must be based on accurate information and realistic predictions on working hours and wages. Sears Holdings Corporation will compare the WRIP Improvement Plan with other factories in the same area to determine if the plan is in keeping with industry standards. If a WRIP Improvement Plan is accepted, the factory must agree to the following
1、To be completely honest with Sears Holdings Corporation. They will not falsify records or coach workers.
2、To track working hours for all employees either manually or through a timecard system (in accordance with Sears Holdings Corporation Code of Vendor Conduct Notice and Recordkeeping Guidelines).
3、To guarantee the wage levels for all workers according to the submitted improvement plan. Any worker whose wages fall below these levels due to productivity (new, trainee, apprentice and slow workers) will be paid a top-up allowance equal to the difference.
4、Any deductions for such items as food, dormitory, water and electricity will be documented properly and will provide to Sears Holdings Corporation upon request.
5、Finally, a violation of the above four conditions may result in factory termination.
Based on the acceptance of these terms, Sears Holdings Corporation will work with the factory to implement a detailed WRIP Improvement Plan and permit the factory to produce Sears Holdings Corporation merchandise. Sears Holdings Corporation will also agree to keep all information related to the WRIP Improvement Plan confidential to Sears Holdings Corporation, the vender(s) working with the factory, and the factory itself.