The bank’s new Supplier Code of Conduct, unveiled Friday, comes about five weeks after it faced an angry backlash over plans to dismiss Canadian IT workers and outsource work to an offshore supplier.
RBC’s suppliers must “not hire foreign workers from outside of Canada, when performing services on behalf of RBC, where a worker eligible to work in Canada is available and able to perform the service,” the bank said in a release.
RBC examined the types of work the bank will and will not outsource “to ensure suppliers support RBC’s focus on creating Canadian jobs and prosperity,” the bank said.
Specifically, RBC will only send work offshore to suppliers when their investment in “scale, technology or operational knowledge” cannot be found in Canada, the bank said.
“RBC will not offshore work where salary savings is the primary reason and will make every effort to source in Canada,” the bank said.
“I think this is a well-balanced response, appropriate to the issue and appropriate to the reality of the employment world in 2013,” said Alan Middleton, assistant professor of marketing at the Schulich School of Business at York University. “It hits a balance between consumer and public and government expectations on how a major institution like a bank should behave, but in its wording it still gives flexibility for efficiency.”
The new code, developed with the help of a global consulting firm, is an “enhancement” of what was already in place, Greg Grice, chief procurement officer at RBC, said in an interview.
The bank has always expected suppliers to adhere to employment law and human rights codes and treat employees with respect, Grice said. The most significant changes deal with policies on outsourcing.
Suppliers will not subcontract services without specific written consent of RBC and “need to demonstrate that they continue to create investment and jobs in Canada in the provision of service to RBC,” according to the new code.
Suppliers may also be required to provide regular written confirmation to RBC of their compliance.
“Based on our research, I think we are the first major Canadian financial institution to issue a code and to have a specific monitoring program behind it,” Grice said.
“I think it’s a masterful piece of public relations, but I think it’s still missing the boat,” Armine Yalnizyan, senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, an independent, non-partisan research institute concerned with social and economic justice issues.
She said RBC should commit to paying its workers a living wage, as Vancity Credit Union did in May 2011. Higher than the legally mandated minimum wage, a living wage is the rate that a family needs to meet its basic needs.
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has been a proponent of the living wage, particularly in Vancouver, Toronto, and other cities with a steep cost of living.
RBC “is one of the most profitable businesses in the country. Why can’t they give all their workers a living wage, whether they’re direct employees or subcontracted employees?” Yalnizyan asked.
In April, RBC employees went public with complaints that the bank was terminating 45 jobs and misusing the federal temporary foreign worker program to bring offshore workers into Canada to be trained by RBC workers about to lose their jobs.
RBC denied allegations that it hired temporary foreign workers and its supplier, iGate Corp. said it complied with all Canadian laws.
Amid a public backlash, chief executive officer Gord Nixon publicly apologized and said it would find them other work at the bank.
Nixon also pledged in an Open Letter to Canadians on April 11 to review its supplier arrangements and policies.
RBC has approximately 57,000 employees in Canada and 18,000 active suppliers around the world.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com
Author: Madhavi Acharya-Tom Yew
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