Volkswagen's Forced-Labor Probe at Chinese Plant Lacks Human Rights Standard

Volkswagen’s investigation into forced-labor allegations at one of its Chinese plants did not meet international human rights standards, according to its own auditor.

The Financial Times reports the audit last year of working practices at the Xinjiang plant, jointly owned with state-owned automaker SAIC, did not comply with the SA8000 standard on human rights.

That’s because the organizations VW employed to conduct the investigation, Germany’s Loening Human Rights & Responsible Business GmbH and Chinese law firm Liangma, were not accredited to carry out SA8000 audits, according to a list compiled by the standard-setting body, Social Accountability International.

The FT, which has a full report of the audit as has Germany's Der Spiegel and ZDF, found interviews with workers which should have been confidential were live-streamed to a law firm's headquarters in Shenzhen, southern China, and that only managers, not shop-floor workers, were asked questions related to forced labor.

VW’s investors demanded last year that the carmaker conduct an independent audit of labor conditions at the site where rights groups have documented abuses including mass forced labor in detention camps. Beijing denies any such abuses.

Reuters news agency reports VW did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, it told the FT that the SA8000 standard had only been used by the auditors as a “basis” but that “full examination of all points mentioned in the standard were necessary.”