Building EICC awareness in Thailand

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Participants discuss improvements
in labor standards.

HP followed the success of our 2009 multi-stakeholder conference for hard disk drive (HDD) suppliers in Thailand with a year-long social and environmental responsibility (SER) capability-building program in 2010. In collaboration with HDD companies Hitachi GST, Seagate, Toshiba, and Western Digital, as well nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), the program aimed to:

  • Raise awareness and improve implementation of labor standards among management.
  • Share knowledge and skills among suppliers.
  • Enhance human resources management practices to improve labor relations and handling of conflict.

Nearly 25 suppliers took part in the courses, which included a two-day roundtable for suppliers to discuss their training needs and raise concerns about implementation of HP's Electronic Industry Code of Conduct (HP's EICC); a five-day management training course focusing on awareness of HP's EICC and implementation, management systems, and conflict resolution (with 37 participants); and a best-practice sharing session.

Participants gave positive feedback and expressed a desire to attend quarterly meetings to share future challenges and best practices. HP and our partners plan to host follow-up meetings in 2011 and extend the training to HDD suppliers in Malaysia. We intend to use our 2011 audit results to judge the effectiveness of the training.