BERLIN — While Investors Welcome by Volkswagen decided to audit its jointly owned factory in Xinjiang, Chinasome are questioning how it will be run and whether it will be enough to eliminate the risk of forced labor in the supply chain.
Deka, Union Investment and Dachverband Kritische Aktionaere (The umbrella organization for key shareholders) are among those calling for VW at its annual overview met last month to conduct an audit of the plant in Urumqi, Xinjiang, where it assembles cars for sale in the region.
The United Nations and human rights groups estimate that more than a million people, mainly Uighurs and other Muslim minorities, have been detained in recent years in a vast camp system in New Zealand. Cuong and used as forced and underpaid labor.
China denies any human rights abuses in the western region.
Volkswagen’s China chief visited the plant earlier this year and said he saw no signs of forced labor, but some investors requested an external audit, with Union Investment alerting Volkswagen in May that they will be removed from the sustainability fund if they do not do so within a month.
On Wednesday, CEO Oliver Blume pledged to arrange an independent audit this year, but it is not yet known who will run it, how extensive it will be, and how the results will be shared. how.
Previously, Volkswagen said its joint venture partner at the SAIC plant would have to agree to the audit.
Blume said the two companies are in a “productive exchange”.
A Volkswagen spokesman on Thursday declined to say whether SAIC asked for the conditions in the audit.
“This audit must be done immediately for Volkswagen to be able to invest,” said Janne Werning of Union Investment, adding that it must also be done by a company with a good reputation and results. fully publicly shared.
Ingo Speich, head of sustainability and corporate governance at Deka, Volkswagen’s top 20 shareholders, hailed the decision to conduct the audit as a “clear signal towards creating greater prosperity”. transparent”, but said an accredited company must carry out an audit.
However, a far-reaching crackdown on consulting and appraisal firms in China, some of which refuse to audit in Xinjiang because of difficulty in identifying reliable reports there, poses question about the reliability of the results, the Umbrella Foundation for Key Shareholders said.
“The German export control office urgently needs to clarify whether it considers measures such as external audits appropriate and effective in authoritarian countries,” said co-director Tilman Massa.
That office oversees and enforces a German law introduced this year that requires larger companies to establish due diligence procedures to prevent human rights and environmental abuses in their global supply chains. Surname.
The audit will not alleviate a legal case against the carmaker on Wednesday by Berlin-based rights group ECCHR, demanding more evidence on how Volkswagen tracks forced labor risks. only at their factory but also at any suppliers or sub-suppliers with links to Xinjiang.
“No worker can speak freely without putting themselves and their families at risk,” said a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, a human rights group. “We have serious doubts about how Volkswagen intends to conduct the independent review.”
