Employees who examine screens for blemishes under bright lights in large electronics suppliers' sites have reported to Electronics Watch that their eyesight declines within a short period of time.  Their only recourse, some of them have told researchers, is to resign from their jobs.  Electronics Watch has developed Guidelines to mitigate, prevent and remedy eye strain to ensure these workers and others who work under similar conditions do not need to resign in order to protect their health.

Electronics Watch has developed the Public Buyer Toolkit to support communication and promote contract compliance within its affiliates' supply chains. The Public Buyer Toolkit contains standardized and easy-to-use tools guiding affiliates and their contractors. A strong and harmonised communication process will help Electronics Watch monitor and ensure compliance with affiliates' contract conditions and code of labour standards.

The Economic Rights Institute and Electronics Watch have released The Link Between Employment Conditions and Suicide: A Study of the Electronics Sector in China. The report analyses original quantitative and qualitative data to show how certain employment conditions heighten the risk of employee suicide.

Electronics Watch and Crown Commercial Service (CCS) will be working in partnership to detect and address modern slavery in supply chains of public sector customers seeking assured technology hardware purchasing options.

There is an exciting programme lined up for the Electronics Watch Annual Conference 2018, with interactive sessions on purchasing practices, supply chain transparency and social dialogue, and technical workshops addressing contract performance clauses, brand evaluations and guidance on human rights due diligence in global supply chains. The confirmed participants so far come from 17 countries around the world.

Following two years of monitoring and reporting on labour standards compliance at the Foxconn factory in Pardubice, Czech Republic, Electronics Watch has released findings in accordance with our transparency policy.

L'Associació Catalana de Municipis (ACM - the Catalan Association of Local Authorities), with over 1000 members, has affiliated to Electronics Watch. 800 of these local authorities use ACM's procurement centre, and 80 are already buying printers through the printers framework agreement containing the Electronics Watch clauses. There are two more framework agreements which will include them when they are renewed: IT and video reporting of plenaries.

The recent FIFA World Cup and the one coming in four years have been built on the backs of workers denied fundamental labour rights, human rights groups report.  Will the one in 2026 be different?

The City of Amsterdam, capital of the Netherlands and legal home to Electronics Watch, has taken two important steps to affirm its stance on labour rights in supply chains: affiliating to Electronics Watch; and playing co-host for the Electronics Watch Annual Conference 2018 on December 11.

Local authorities are not doing enough to protect workers' rights globally, according to research published last week by UNISON. According to the report Ethical Procurement in UK Local Authorities, produced by People & Planet on behalf of UNISON, only eight of the 190 local authorities looked at had a standalone ethical procurement policy. One in five local authorities were unable to find evidence of sustainability being part of procurement practices, policies or strategies. There are 20 local authorities amongst Electronics Watch’s 200 affiliates – one is in the UK.