COVID-19: "COVID-19 and human rights study" from the World Benchmarking Alliance: The study examines 229 companies from different sectors (including textile alliance members: ADIDAS, H&M, Hugo Boss and Puma) and their responses to the crisis, with a focus on: Corporate governance and political engagement, human rights due diligence with a focus on health & safety, as well as livelihoods, purchasing practices and grievance mechanisms. 77% of clothing companies took no or minimal measures to assess and address human rights risks and the impact of their purchasing decisions during the crisis (results from page 26).
climate: The report "Transparency to Transformation: A chain reaction" (PDF file) by CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) addresses the need for companies to identify environmental hazards in their supply chains in order to remain competitive in the future. In the clothing sector, emissions within supply chains are 25.2 times higher than in operations (average of sectors 11.4). The expert group on climate protection in the Textile Alliance also focuses in particular on reductions of these so-called Scope 3 emissions.
unification: On Friday, the Ministers salvation, Mueller and Altmaier announces: The Supply Chain Act is coming. Despite the joy that the Supply Chain Act will be passed in this legislative period, there are still Supply Chain Act initiative Some criticisms: The lack of civil liability, environmental due diligence obligations only in relation to certain topics, the due diligence obligations should apply to the full extent only to direct suppliers. In addition, initially (from 2023) only companies with more than 3,000 employees are to be covered by the law, from 2024 then companies with 1,000 employees. According to the report of FashionUnited and data from Statista, of the 923 German textile and clothing companies, only a total of three companies have more than 1,000 employees, while the majority have 20 to 49 employees (429 companies). Companies with 50 to 99 and 100 to 249 employees each hold the balance of 213 and 225 companies. Only 41 companies have between 250 and 499 employees and only 12 between 500 and 999.
Bangladesh: According to a study More than 350,000 textile workers have lost their jobs in Bangladesh since the beginning of the crisis (The official number is only 56,000). The National Garment Workers Federation (NGWFEncourages factories to release workers for a maximum of 45 days and then reinstate or dismiss them at full pay. Workers are currently held for months and receive only 40% of their salary. loud Amirul Haque Amin (NGWF) factory owners want to use it Pressure on workers Find work elsewhere so they can't claim compensation.
Myanmar: Textile workers continue to protest against the military coup; International Trade Unions Call on Governments and BusinessesTarget the commercial interests of the military and end the preferential EU trade status (EBA - Everything But Arms) and financial ties with military-owned companies; the largest trade union in the clothing sector IMFM (Industrial Workers' Federation of Myanmar) calls on all brands investing in Myanmar to condemn the coup and declares that future investments will be at risk under a military dictatorship; However, companies should ensure that no workers are persecuted in any way when participating in protests; the Myanmar Times It has already been reported due to the pandemic. The poor situation of the clothing sector, which will now deteriorate further as a result of the political unrest
Morocco: In Tangier 19 women and nine men died after the sweatshop where they worked was flooded after heavy rain. The Clean clothes campaign points out in the report that such disasters will increase as a result of global warming and explains the importance of internationally binding agreements on building security modelled on the Bangladesh Accord. In addition, the precarious working conditions in the country are discussed. According to an article by Morocco World news There are thousands of sweatshops in Morocco. In a Spanish documentary, several Factories with underground levels and delivered escape routes shown
Sri Lanka: Coronavirus infections in the country continue to rise and the British virus mutant has also been detected in several cities. In the article of WSWS be Textile factories as epicenters of the crisis called. Despite high levels of contagion, the factories remain open so that deadlines can be met.
Armed angels publishes the entire supply chain on Open Apparel Registry A medium-sized company thus goes further than the majority of the Textilbündnis members, who so far do not even participate in an aggregated list of Tier 1 suppliers.
Textile alliance companies Takko NRW-Landesbürgschaft applies for: The loan is worth a mid-double-digit million. According to Chief Executive Officer Holland However, the situation of the clothing company is not comparable to that of other companies in insolvency proceedings, since: 2019 For Takko, the most successful financial year in years and also the second half of 2020 was "extremely strong". Due to the proximity of the stores to food discounters such as Lidl and Aldi or drugstores, one is also not affected by the decreased customer frequencies in the inner cities.
The textile alliance companies S. Oliver, Hugo Boss and Kik have collaborated with other retailers and fashion companies merged, as they cannot apply for bridging aid, as their turnover exceeds €750 million. The companies are already in exchange with the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
