Disney case highlights China supply chain pitfalls

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such allegations: like many high-profile firms, Disney has been dogged by anti-sweatshop crusaders for years. Since 1996, it has set guidelines and monitored working conditions and schedules, pay and benefits, environmental and safety rules, non-discrimination and group bargaining rights.

Over the past decade, the company has performed countless audits and has collected data on 40,000 factories around the world to track potentially systemic problems and to eliminate troublesome facilities from its supply chain.

Affiliates get "three strikes" to comply before Disney revokes approval to produce its merchandise. "We remove authorisation on a regular basis because we take this seriously," said Mark Spears, Disney's director of international labour standards. But while the tough audit regimes upon which many Western companies base their compliance efforts may look good on paper, experts say they don't solve the core problems.