Press Review

For my press review I examined an article from L'Express, dated 26th of November 2012.

This article talks about an audit undertaken in Samsung's chinese factories.

The initial objective was to measure the employment of minors in those factories. No minor was found, but excessive overtime and an illegal system of fines for late or absent employees have been discovered.

After these discoveries Samsung announced a series of measures to eliminate overtime and make its managers aware of issues like verbal abuse and sexual harassment.

This article is interesting because it shows that companies such as Samsung now engage seriously in sustainable development and develop corporate social responsibility.

In a few years, actions taken by Samsung like respecting working hours and preventing harassment might be made mandatory.

New audits will take into account social responsibility and sustainable development. Non-financial criteria will become very important. For example, auditors may want to count the number of plants per office to evaluate the greenness of the work environment.

I think right now most companies's main reason to implement sustainable development policies is because a bad image has an impact on their share prices.

I believe that sustainable development is an important issue and that whatever the reason put in place, it is to be done.

Some companies such as Danone and Schneider Electric are exemplary, but remain isolated cases.

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