four core ILO labor standards—freedom of association, elimination of forced labor, nondiscrimination, and elimination of child labor (Nadvi and Waltring, 2001). In addition, most of them monitor conditions of work, including limits on hours, wage requirements, and provisions for basic health and safety. Also, he said, most of the systems monitor workers’ living conditions, such as the adequacy of dormitories and food provided by the employer.

There are “major challenges in doing this kind of monitoring,” O’Rourke said, such as the long, mobile chains used in producing and purchasing apparel and other products for a multinational brand or retailer. These long supply chains, together with multiple layers of ownership and shifting locations, can make it difficult for auditors to track and monitor the correct factories in developing nations. In addition, monitors who are not closely affiliated with the owners of the factory may have difficulty obtaining access. And because factories in developing countries often supply a variety of buyers, they are faced with many different, and sometimes conflicting, codes of conduct. Some factories “have two or three sets of books” to deceive tax collectors and multinational purchasers about working conditions and the real costs of production.

Noting that monitors need improved technical capacity to understand and investigate different labor problems, O’Rourke said that when he is present as a health and safety expert, it “is not a normal day in the factory.” He presented slides demonstrating that some health and safety problems, such as uncovered cloth-cutting blades, may be quite obvious to monitors, while other less visible health and safety problems may cause chronic illness or injury. He noted that accounting firms are entering the labor monitoring field “as fast as they can print the brochures” and need to improve their capacity and expertise.

The new programs are now collecting “significant, huge” amounts of “very interesting data,” O’Rourke said. The downside is that most of it is not made public, but some information is beginning to come out. The first type of information now available is disclosure of the names and locations of factories—this is a big step to “pull back the veil of secrecy over industry.” Second, some monitoring groups are publishing the results of their certification audits. For example, the Fair Labor Association recently decided to make summaries of its audits available to the public. Third, some