The International Council of Toy Industries CARE Process (ICP), the worldwide toy industry’s ethical manufacturing program, has begun implementation of its new policy on Wages and Working Hours via a Continuous Improvement Process. This new process, which has been phased in since September 2009, is now in full effect.

The goal of this new effort is to improve factory compliance with wages and working hours requirements and to foster improved transparency in this critical area.

Instead of the earlier “pass-fail?system for compliance with wages and working hours requirements, the new Continuous Improvement Process offers toy factories the opportunity to qualify for ICP compliance certification more quickly. This is accomplished by working progressively toward full compliance on wages and working hours over time.

To enter this process, a factory must be completely transparent about its current wages and working hours practice and must have no other serious violations registered in its initial audit.

All factories registered in the ICP will be given the opportunity to qualify for this process and must reach full compliance as follows:
Wages: Factories are given three months to become compliant with wage requirements.
Working Hours: Factories have until 30 June 2012 to reduce hours to no more than 66 per week. During that time, they will be categorized according to the hours worked. Factories whose audits are conducted after 30 June 2011, will have one year to reach that level.

The new process was developed by ICP technical staff and advisors and was approved by the Governance Board of the ICTI CARE Foundation in June 2009. It began with auditor training this past July. It is being used in all initial and annual ICP social compliance audits.

The new Continuous Improvement Process (CIP) will be continually evaluated and updated. It includes training and capacity-building for auditors, audit firms and factory management to help them meet the wages and working hours requirements.

This is part of a multi-stakeholder effort to strengthen brands? retailers?and licensors?commitment to source only from ICP-certified factories and to encourage buyers both to place orders as early as possible and to set reasonable production and delivery schedules.

The ICTI CARE Foundation Governance Board will report annually on the results of this new process.