fashion - standards

NO CHILD LABOUR IN OUR FACTORY, Bangladesh Garment Factory

Ethical standards in garment factories are currently regulated by existing international law and by retailer's own codes of conduct.

Read on to see what this means in practice and why it is important for retailers to join the Ethical Trading Initiative.

Click here to see common issues faced by workers.

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The International Labour Organisation

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) was created in 1919 to adopt international standards to tackle the problem of poor working conditions.

The ILO has 175 country members.

What are the standards?
Important standards have been identified by the ILO as being fundamental to the rights of human beings at work. These standards include:

freedom of association
the right to organise
no forced labour
equality of opportunity and treatment
no child labour
the right of collective bargaining

How are they used?
International labour standards are to be used as a guide for the design and implementation of labour laws.

Why are they needed?
They are needed as a benchmark for the provision of human rights – they are intended to be ratified and implemented so they can have a concrete impact on working conditions and practices in every country of the world.

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Codes of conduct

Codes of conduct are rules which companies have decided they and their suppliers will comply with.

How do we know which codes are good and which are not?
To really work, these codes need to:

include all of the important working standards such as making sure workers are paid a living wage and can work in safe and healthy conditions.
be checked by people who do not work for the company to make sure that the workers are being treated well.
be monitored – so that all of the factories and workers in the supply chain making clothes for the company are making working conditions better for workers.

So far this is not the case for most of our high street stores. Many are not taking responsibility for the working conditions of the people making their clothes.

Some companies have made up their own codes of conduct. That wouldn’t be a problem if they included all the important ILO (International Labour Organistion) standards and if they really enforce them in the workplace. Unfortunately, not all companies are serious about their own codes of conduct, as demonstrated by the abundance of spelling mistakes in the code of conduct from one high street retailer.

Many don’t have a good system in place to put these codes into practice. So in the end the code remains just a list of nice ideas on a piece of paper. Researchers have also found that around the world in many factories where people make clothes for companies that have these codes of conduct, the workers don’t even know they exist, or can’t read them as they are in English, not the local language.

Ethical Trading Initiative

The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) is an alliance of companies, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and trade union organisations. They exist to promote and improve the implementation of corporate codes of practice which cover supply chain working conditions. Their ultimate goal is to ensure that the working conditions of workers producing for the UK market meet or exceed international labour standards.

The focus of the Lift the Label campaign to date has been encouraging high street retailers to join the ETI. Although only a voluntary code of conduct it provides a vital forum for retailers to discuss ethical issues as well as a base code on which retailers can model their own code of conduct.

Current ETI members (as of Feb 2007) include: Marks & Spencer, Sainsburys, Tesco, Asda, Monsoon, Next, Debenhams, New Look and Gap.

Labour behind the Label

Tearfund is working in partnership with the UK wing of the European Clean Clothes Campaign, Labour Behind the Label.

Labour Behind the Label is a UK network of organisations supporting clothing workers' efforts to defend their rights and improve their wages and conditions. It includes major overseas aid organisations such as Tearfund, Oxfam and Cafod as well as major UK textile unions and home working organisations such as Traidcraft and small solidarity groups such as the Central America Women’s Network.

Labour Behind the Label aims to:

draw attention to the plight of clothing industry workers around the world including the UK.
campaign for the improvement of working conditions in the clothing industry by encouraging clothing companies to comply with standards laid down by the International Labour Organisation. These standards including paying workers a wage they can live on, ensuring safe and healthy working conditions, and allowing workers the right to get into a trade union so they can work together to improve conditions.
encourage retailers to take responsibility for working conditions in all stages of their clothes production and to make sure independent checks are carried out to ensure worker's conditions are improving.
promote fairer trade. To do this, Labour Behind the Label conducts consumer campaigns to put pressure on companies to take responsibility for working conditions. It raises awareness of issues facing garment industry workers by producing info material, and organising speaking tours for garment workers. It engages in dialogue with companies who are willing to take steps to improve conditions for their workers – by agreeing to implement and monitor codes of conduct and accept independent checks of their working conditions.
Labour Behind the Label does not call for boycotts since this may damage the livelihoods of workers. It will only recommend boycotts if workers themselves directly ask for a boycott.

For more information visit www.labourbehindthelabel.org