The Home Depot

一、Introduction to Home Depot Company

The Home Depot company was founded in 1978 and is the world's largest furniture and building materials retailer, the second largest retailer in the United States. In fiscal 2005, sales reached $81.5 billion. The Home Depot sells various types of building materials, home furnishings, and lawn and garden products, and provides various related services. The Home Depot standard store has an average indoor area of nearly 9758 square meters, and also has an outdoor garden product area of 2138 square meters. In addition to The Home Depot Standard Store, we also have the EXPO Design Center, which mainly provides products and services for home decoration and renovation projects, as well as the Home Depot Supply and The Home Depot Landscape Supply, which provide professional customer service As of the end of fiscal year 2005, The Home Depot had a total of 1984 standard stores located in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, 34 EXPO Design Centers, 3 Home Depot Supplies, and 11 The Home Depot Landscape Supplies. In addition, there are two flooring specialty stores mainly operating flooring products in Texas and Florida. The Home Depot was listed in 1981 under the stock code HD on the New York Stock Exchange, and is also a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index.

二、Home Depot Company Ethical Standards

Home Depot and its subsidiaries, branches, and subsidiaries are committed to operating in a responsible manner. Due to the establishment of subsidiaries overseas and working with global suppliers to meet customer needs, a shared commitment to safeguarding human rights and providing a safe working environment in the workplace is crucial.

Home Depot expects all its suppliers to comply with local laws and regulations in the production and distribution of products or the provision of services for Home Depot. We encourage all suppliers to operate above the requirements of Home Depot and continuously improve.

Home Depot requires all suppliers to comply with the above regulations and will conduct an annual Social and Environmental Responsibility (SER) audit of factories producing authorized brands or patented products. For suppliers producing other products, Home Depot will evaluate the factory's SER or corporate social responsibility procedures to ensure compliance with the regulations below Home Depot. If the factory does not establish a SER program or corporate social responsibility program, Home Depot will work with suppliers to help them establish internal supervision mechanisms to ensure compliance with the requirements of this standard. Home Depot reserves the right to audit any suppliers who produce and distribute products or provide services for us. Home Depot expects suppliers/factories to notify Home Depot in writing when changing their operating address. In addition, manufacturers are not allowed to transfer their products to other places for production without the consent of the quality assurance department.

This guideline briefly introduces the minimum requirements that suppliers must comply with when conducting business dealings with Home Depot, as part of all new or renewed commercial contracts at Home Depot.

Requirements for meeting social and environmental responsibility standards

Inspection rights

Suppliers must allow representatives of Home Depot to conduct audits of production units on the 'Factory Public Information Form', including entering the factory, interviewing workers, and all other documents related to the audit.

Age requirements

Suppliers are not allowed to use child labor. Home Depot requires all suppliers to hire workers who have reached the local minimum working age, and under no circumstances shall they use workers under the age of 14.

If the factory provides an apprenticeship program, it must comply with all relevant local laws and regulations.

Forced labor

Employment must be voluntary. Do not use forced labor, contractual labor, or debt labor to produce products from Home Depot or any of its subsidiaries.

deceive

Suppliers must ensure that all records, job cards, and other documents in the factory accurately reflect the actual production situation.

The supplier must ensure that all products sold to Home Depot do not violate the requirements of patent, trademark, or copyright laws. If requested by Home Depot, the supplier shall provide all necessary certificates.

Salary and working hours

Suppliers must establish effective mechanisms to verify and accurately record employees' wages, deductions, and working hours.

Suppliers must comply with all legal requirements related to wages and salaries in their respective countries, including normal working hours wages, overtime wages, maximum allowable working hours, piece rate wages, and other legal and regulatory requirements related to employee benefits.

Non discrimination

Hiring workers should be based on individual abilities rather than personal characteristics. This includes but is not limited to employment, wages, benefits, promotion, disciplinary action, or dismissal.

Home Depot requires its suppliers to respect workers and uphold their dignity. Suppliers must ensure that no form of corporal punishment is used in the workplace.

Environment, Health and Safety

Home Depot requires suppliers to comply with local laws and regulations to provide employees with a safe and healthy working environment to avoid accidents and accidents during work.

If the employer provides employee dormitories, they must ensure a safe and healthy living environment and comply with all relevant local laws and regulations.

Encourage suppliers to provide personal protective equipment for workers exposed to hazardous working conditions.

Encourage suppliers to comply with local/national laws and regulations when storing, managing, and disposing of waste.

Emergency plan

Emergency exits in the factory and dormitory areas must be kept unobstructed.

Freedom of speech and association

Production units must respect the right of workers to freely join legitimate organizations and not interfere with their exercise of this right.

Auditing

Authorized suppliers, brands, or patented product manufacturers of Home Depot will undergo an annual review. In order to ensure that suppliers can continue to meet SER requirements, Home Depot will conduct an unannounced audit of the factory. The audit fee shall be borne by the supplier. All SER audits are based on national/local laws or Home Depot standards (in cases where local laws do not specify).

Corrective measures

If a supplier is found to have discrepancies during the audit, the supplier must take appropriate improvement measures to correct the discrepancies within the time required by the Home Depot and avoid recurrence.

Environmental requirements

Home Depot seeks to collaborate with suppliers who have the same guarantee of excellent environment as us.

Require suppliers to comply with the environmental laws of their respective countries/regions.

Suppliers are expected to purchase wood and wood products that comply with forest system certification where feasible and promote the effective and responsible use of wood and wood products.

Supply Chain Security

Home Depot places great emphasis on supply chain security issues. Due to the increasing prevalence of global terrorism, we have joined the US Customs C-TPAT program and taken other measures to strengthen existing internal security measures. The Home Depot also requires suppliers to comply with minimum safety standards.

Suppliers should establish relevant processes and procedures and ensure that unauthorized goods or personnel are not allowed to enter the containers of Home Depot and its subsidiaries. Therefore, suppliers should have written safety procedures that address at least the following CBP standards.

The Home Depot reserves the right to evaluate the implementation of supplier safety plans and their production factories/warehouses. If the supplier's production unit does not take sufficient safety measures, it will endanger the relationship with the Home Depot.

The following standards specify the minimum requirements that suppliers must comply with in order to conduct business with Home Depot. However, Home Depot is aware of the differences in the business environment of suppliers in different countries/regions, and we expect suppliers to operate with requirements higher than this minimum standard. The Home Depot will handle different cases based on the actual situation. Home Depot encourages all suppliers to operate above this minimum standard and continuously improve.

Container Security 

Suppliers must establish loading procedures to prevent unauthorized goods or personnel from entering the container.

All fully loaded containers shipped to the United States must be sealed with high safety seals (in accordance with PAS ISO 177712 standard).

When the container is in the supplier's production unit, it must be stored in a safe area to avoid unauthorized entry and/or manipulation.

Physical security of factories/warehouses

The materials used in the building must be able to resist illegal entry.

Physical security includes sufficient locking devices, sufficient lighting, and perimeter security.

Factory/warehouse access control

Suppliers should establish safety procedures to prevent unauthorized personnel from entering all loading/unloading platforms and areas.

Supplier access control includes:

A system for effectively identifying employees, visitors, and suppliers.

There must be a procedure for identifying, interrogating, and reporting unauthorized personnel.

Factory/warehouse personnel safety

Within the scope permitted by local laws, personnel selection is conducted during the recruitment process, including background checks and employee interviews.

Factory/warehouse safety training and vigilance awareness

Suppliers must have or establish a safety awareness program that primarily trains employees on hazard awareness and supply chain security issues. All employees of the supplier must receive such training.

information safety

All automated systems of the supplier should only be accessed through a separate account, and passwords must be changed regularly.

Suppliers must establish information security policies and provide relevant training to all employees.

Third party

During the transportation of goods to Home Depot, if at any point the supplier is unable to control production or product transportation, the supplier agrees to use reasonable commercial pressure to ensure that their suppliers and transporters implement this recommendation.

On site evaluation

In order to ensure the correct implementation and compliance of the minimum standards of this code, Home Depot reserves the right to conduct surprise inspections of the factory at the supplier's expense.

Corrective measures

If it is found that the factory used by the supplier to produce products for Home Depot or its subsidiaries violates the requirements of this standard, Home Depot reserves the right to take appropriate corrective measures. The Home Depot has the sole right to interpret and enforce this standard.

Annual Notice

Home Depot requires suppliers who have passed C-TPAT certification to provide a copy of the C-TPAT certificate and SVI number. Suppliers must also fill in

The self-assessment survey questionnaire developed by the Global Business Services Department of Home Depot and submitted for filing.

Home Depot's Requirements for Imported Goods from High Risk Countries

Home Depot uses a series of methods to monitor global security issues, and then categorizes different countries into high, medium, and low risks.

We reserve the right to choose third-party security agencies to directly contact suppliers for countries classified as high-risk by Home Depot.

Home Depot will be responsible for all details, including audits at the factory or port (including but not limited to providing audit checklists to security agents, arranging audit dates and times)

The third party requires the supplier to provide a copy of the audit documents to the Home Depot for filing.

Suppliers are responsible for ensuring timely payment of relevant fees to third-party auditing agencies (45 day payment deadline).

Home Depot only recognizes contracts signed by third-party organizations and suppliers, and suppliers should provide a copy of the contract to the Global Business Services Manager of Home Depot.

Any violations that do not comply with this safety standard will result in a 'failed audit' result.

三、The Home Depot

 I. A quick reference guide to some useful document review standard

COC

THD Ethical Standards for Suppliers

Interview

- 20% of total work force for facilities with 100 or less; or

- 20 interviews minimum for facilities with more than 100 employees

- Individual or group interview.--Training on 12 Sep 2005 (No detailed guideline, but K.Y. recommends that auditors mainly follow ITS internal interview guideline: one to one.

-Talk with K.Y. on 26 Sep 2005)

Timecards & payrolls

- 20% of total work force for facilities with 100 employees or less; or

- 20 records minimum for facilities with more than 100 employees

For example, a factory with an employee population of 100 employees or greater should be sampled as follows:

Month 1 (Most recent pay period) = Sample 20 employees time cards and payroll wages.

Month 2 (Peak production pay period) = Sample 5-10 employees time cards and payroll wages.

Month 3 (Non-peak production pay period) = Sample 5 employees time cards and payroll wages.

- As be informed by THD, they accept not only the electronic time card but also the paper punching and manual time cards. For the manual time card, it must be clearly recorded the IN and OUT time including overtime hours (not accepted using a symbol '*' or 'X' for recording the attendance) and employee name must be shown on the manual time card. --E050106

Overtime hours

General

Rest days

General

Fine

General

Public holiday wage

General

CWHS wage

General

Digital photos

Suggested photos by THD are:

- Non compliances of safety issues

- Documents that can be photographed (i.e. in case of child labor)

- PPE

II. Specific Audit Requirement
A. Miscellaneous and Common Requirement
1.Audit Scope
With immediate effect, auditors should raise all findings against the local laws in the appropriate questions on the checklist.-- E141105

2.Zero Tolerence (G1)

When a G1 non-compliance is noted, a SER alert notification form must be sent to me within 24 hours of discovering the finding. --E080905

G1 findings include the following:

1. Confirmed child labor usage (Historical child labor is not included here.)

2. Confirmed forced labor usage

3. Evidence of corporal punishment

4. Alleged use of bribery

5. Confirmed Fraud or could not be verified

Denial of Access requires SER Alert Notification sent to Asia SER Team as well as Altanta SER team.