ASSEMBLY PLANT

A factory designed for the purpose of assembling ready- made components, usually on an assembly line, thereby producing a finished product.

"It was expected that the maquilas would draw primarily from the unskilled labour pool, displaced by the end of the Bracero program. Capital-rich US companies would set up assembly plants in designated areas along the border to provide employment to labour-surplus Mexico."
(Galhardy, R., Maquiladoras prospects of regional integration and globalization, International Labour Organization (ILO), 1998, visited 2009-05-26)

Working Conditions

"Assembly-line work is often performed in a workplace environment with physical problems, such as noise, vibrations and dangerous machines, which can be an important stress factor [for workers]."
(Kvarnström, S., Stress prevention for blue-collar workers in assembly-line production, 1997, visited 2009-05-26)

In addition, assembly plants have been known to be workplaces where labour exploitation is more frequent, especially in developing countries where working conditions are often poor and wages are low.

Factory Monitoring, Labour Standard Compliance

Companies such as Timberland are now disclosing their global factory lists in order to facilitate the verification of labour and environmental standard compliance by unions and NGOs. In addition, some governments also provide assembly plant workers with tools to enable them to report any infraction of labour standards to labour compliance authorities.

For example, "the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) is committed to providing its customers — America's employers, workers, job seekers, and retirees — with clear and easy-to-access information on how to comply with federal employment laws. This information is often referred to as ‘compliance assistance,' which is a cornerstone of the Department's efforts to protect the wages, health benefits, retirement security, employment rights, safety, and health of America's workforce."
(Youth rules, U.S. Department of Labor, visited 2009-05-26)

However, many firms also take responsibility for labour standard compliance within their own plants and those of their suppliers. For example, Levi Strauss & Co. "employs 20 full-time factory assessors worldwide, spread out across all regions. […] They conduct annual assessments of all contract factories […] to determine if a factory meets the requirements and, where applicable, develop a corrective action plan.

The formal assessment consists of:

• interviews with the facility management;
• a review of personnel, wage and working hour records;
• a physical walk-through and inspection of health, safety and environmental conditions in the factory and dormitories if they exist; and
• informal discussions with workers in the local language both on and off site."

(Levi-Strauss & Co., Code Application — Factory Monitoring, 2009, visited 2009-05-26)