Could your purchasing practices exploit workers?
Review your own orders alongside supplier checks: compare promised dates with production capacity, trace late changes and check whether payments arrived as agreed. Ask how each pressure affects staffing, working hours and pay, then agree changes and verify the outcome. Discuss the findings with Cambridge China Bridge.
Review the buyer's decisions as well as the factory
Home Office guidance warns that purchasing practices can put pressure on suppliers, contributing to poor recruitment practices, poor working conditions and low pay. Use an order review to identify where your own buying decisions might create that pressure.
Gather the original quotation, specification, approvals, change messages, delivery promises and payment records. Compare what the factory originally accepted with what you eventually asked it to deliver. The existing factory negotiation guide covers commercial terms; this review adds questions about the consequences for workers.
Test whether the deadline is achievable
Ask the production manager to explain the plan: material availability, booked capacity, staffing, outside processes and time for inspection. Ask what would have to change to meet your requested date. An unexplained promise to work harder is a reason to investigate, rather than evidence that capacity exists.
Check whether your delayed approval or inaccurate forecast compressed the production window. Ask whether the revised plan depends on extra working hours, temporary recruitment or another production site. Consider moving the delivery date, simplifying the order or agreeing a staged delivery. Use shipping lead-time planning for the wider delivery schedule.
Make late changes trigger a fresh agreement
Before changing artwork, materials, packaging or quantity, ask what work has already been completed and what must be repeated. Request a revised production plan and cost explanation. Do not leave the original deadline and price in place simply because the change looks small from your desk.
Record who requested the change, its effect on work already done, the revised price and date, and who approved them. Review proposed penalties against that history. If your change caused the delay, agree a response that addresses your contribution rather than passing all the pressure to the factory.
Check payment and price pressure
Compare agreed payment milestones with actual payment dates. Look for internal approval delays, disputed invoices left unresolved, requests to extend terms after production starts, or demands for discounts after work is complete. Ask how the resulting cash gap affects wages, recruitment and payments to subcontractors.
Keep inspection and acceptance controls clear, and resolve disputes promptly. Where only part of an invoice is disputed, discuss how to handle the undisputed amount under the agreed terms. Ask what enables any proposed price reduction. For other ways to save, use reducing import costs rather than relying on factory price pressure.
Record the response and check the worker outcome
Keep a review record showing the buyer's action, the supplier's explanation, the possible worker impact, the agreed correction and the person responsible for checking it. Do not close a concern merely because the shipment arrives. Ask what evidence would show that working hours, wage payments or recruitment arrangements improved.
Where concerns remain, arrange appropriate follow-up that allows workers to raise issues safely, without management answering for them. An audit or a supplier assurance alone should not end the enquiry. Use China supply-chain risk planning for supplier continuity; keep this review focused on whether your purchasing behaviour changes conditions for workers.
Frequently asked questions
Does an urgent order prove worker exploitation?
No. Treat urgency as a reason to check capacity, staffing and working hours. Ask how the factory will meet the date and investigate unexplained changes to the production plan.
What should I ask before changing an order?
Ask what work must be repeated, what costs change and whether the deadline remains achievable. Agree the revised specification, price and date before authorising the change.
Can late supplier payments increase exploitation risk?
Payment delays warrant questions about wages, recruitment and subcontractor payments. Trace your own approval delays, resolve disputes and check whether the agreed correction improves conditions.
Is a factory audit enough?
Use an audit alongside order records, supplier discussions and safe worker feedback. Check whether your deadlines, changes and payments create pressure after the audit, and verify the response.