Morrisons has become the first UK or Irish company to sign up to a new ethical scheme that empowers workers in the developing world to talk freely about poor pay and working conditions.

The supermarket chain will be able to use the system to find out information about the working conditions within the firms that supply them. Fair Working Conditions is the brainchild of four Irish entrepreneurs, one of whom was inspired to establish the system after witnessing worker exploitation in China. The scheme works by allowing the workers in developing countries to decide for themselves if their factory or workplace is up to standard. They can report their grievances directly to Fair Working Conditions’s representatives in various countries.

Dermot Kenny, one of the project founders, who is based in Co Galway, said the system differed from other international checks and monitoring systems of workers and working conditions. “We decided not to spend hours on a paper chase ¬¬¬- reviewing documents presented by the factory management,” he said. “The information that we would identify traditionally through documentation, such as working hours or wage, we would gather via the workers instead. Some workers will be willing to talk, some won’t. But a significant percentage would be interviewed. We interview about a 20 per cent cross-section of a given workforce.”

He said the scheme was designed to highlight health and safety issues such as whether or not workers have access to clean drinking water and breaks during the day.

A spokeswoman for Morrisons confirmed that it has signed up to the ethical audit. “We have implemented an auditing initiative in China. Our partner in this initiative is Fair Working Conditions, which aims to promote, measure and formally accredit best employment practices worldwide,” she said.

“Fair Working Conditions is unique in that it is ultimately the workforce which decides whether or not their employer merits approval through a secret ballot. Companies that participate in the project do so voluntarily. The audits are 100 per cent funded by Morrisons. The objective is to improve working conditions and ultimately comply with internationally accepted norms.”

Kenny pointed out that so far Fair Working Conditions has not had any response from Irish businesses wanting to sign up to the scheme. “We are performing a trial audit with Marks and Spencer in China and are in discussions with several other UK chains,” he added.

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