The study examined how international codes of conduct address employment conditions and gender
issues in the Chinese flower industry. A sample of 20 companies was purposively selected and 200
workers from these companies were interviewed. The adoption of international codes did not improve
workers conditions and gender issues and codes were poorly enforced. There was evidence of
discrimination based on workers’ status of employment and gender. A permanent worker mean daily
wage was RMB14.1 higher than a casual worker. Although welfare benefits were provided to permanent
workers, males and females beneficiaries differed significantly by 32.4 and 24.1%, respectively. This
paper provided the basis for the need to gender audit, mainstream flower companies and adopts
participatory auditing for flower companies’ compliance to the use of codes of conduct.
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