Social Sustainability
Subcontracting
Passing production to third-party suppliers — the mechanism that pushes labour risk down into invisible supply chain tiers.
Definition
Subcontracting is the practice of a contractor or supplier passing part or all of an order to another producer, with or without the buyer's knowledge. In apparel, electronics and agriculture it is routine capacity management; unauthorised subcontracting — the shadow factory problem — routes production into unaudited facilities where excessive hours, unsafe conditions and wage theft concentrate. Declared subcontracting under approval conditions is the compliance alternative.
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