Germany: Volkswagen audit of Xinjiang plant criticised for allegedly failing to meet international standard
"Volkswagen's Human Rights Bluff," 25 September 2024
Since 2013, the German carmaker [Volkswagen] has run a factory in Ürümqi, the capital of the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, together with the state-owned company SAIC... For years, questions have swirled as to whether Volkswagen could completely exclude the possibility that Uyghurs were working in its factory against their will...
...VW took the step of hiring the Berlin-based consulting firm Löning - Human Rights & Responsible Business GmbH... to take a look at the factory in Xinjiang...
...Döss [VW's chief legal officer]... said that "no signs of forced labor were found within the site”. Markus Löning said: "We checked the employment contracts and salary payments of all 197 employees over the last three years, conducted 40 interviews and were able to freely inspect the factory.”...
Several Löning employees publicly distanced themselves from the results of the audit... Study leader Markus Löning also indicated some doubts. He [said]... that interviews at the site would have been too "dangerous” for the Uyghur VW employees...
The investigation was apparently taken care of by... Clive Greenwood... along with two lawyers from Liangma Law, a firm headquartered in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen...
Liangma did not respond to a request for comment sent by DER SPIEGEL. In a written statement, Volkswagen said: "We have no knowledge of the matter you have mentioned and ask for your understanding that we will refrain from further comment.”... VW insists that the Liangma lawyers have "years of experience” with audits and with Chinese labor law...
The audit was supposed to have been completed using the so-called SA8000 standard, an internationally recognized procedure according to which employees are questioned confidentially about their working conditions...
When asked about the procedure, Volkswagen said in a statement: "We are aware of the overall situation in the region.” The company took the "greatest possible precautions” to ensure confidentiality "to the degree possible.” The audit, the company said, was carried out by experienced auditors "with care, diligence and a high level of professionalism.” No group interviews were conducted, the statement read...
[Clive Greenwood] did not respond to efforts to contact him...