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Myanmar is one of the emerging textile production countries. After the end of the military dictatorship in 2011 and international sanctions, the country's economic development is booming. One of the growth engines is the clothing industry.

More than 90% of Myanmar's clothing industry is made up of women. Most of them are under 26, many are minors. Men mainly work in supervisory and managerial positions, they give instructions, exert pressure and some do not shy away from violent behavior. There are discriminatory tendencies towards women both in the legal framework and in society. The traditional view that certain tasks are unsuitable for women still applies in Myanmar.

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This report focuses on the South Indian garment industry clustered around Tirupur and specifically on the labour challenges faced by the industry. We conducted 135 interviews and engaged in a series of consultations with around 100 further participants (including business actors, workers, NGOs, union, and government agencies) in South India during 2018-19 to explore these challenges and potential solutions. We found that the industry is at a crossroads. Despite decades of growth it faces three main labour challenges – competitive threats from lower cost producing countries, labour shortages, and reputational challenges around decent work.

To tackle these challenges, local actors have experimented with a range of different approaches. We identify four main alternative pathways to change: (i) Economic upgrading; (ii) Responsible migration; (iii) relocation of manufacturing; (iv) Diversification. We recommend that the industry and its stakeholders should collaborate to develop a shared Vision 2030 and accompanying goals to address decent work and economic growth in the sector. This should be used to drive alignment around a common strategy and provide a means for external branding of the cluster. A multi-stakeholder taskforce should be formed to lead the Vision 2030 initiative.

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The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights stipulate that companies should identify the human rights impacts of their business activities, prevent adverse impacts, make good harm and communicate these steps in a transparent manner. The present research shows that these due diligence requirements can also be implemented. Companies, but also business consultants and human rights experts were interviewed. Experience shows that complex, large and multinational companies as well as small and medium-sized enterprises can face up to their human rights due diligence obligations. Companies' actions range from training their suppliers, to long-term contracts with suppliers, to reducing the number of suppliers. Where a single company does not make progress, for example in structural challenges such as freedom of association or living wages, committed companies seek cooperation with other companies in the industry, with trade unions or with multistakeholder initiatives such as the Fair Wear Foundation. Against the background of the question of whether the fulfilment of human rights due diligence should remain voluntary or be regulated in a binding manner, two existing regulatory examples were examined: The Dodd-Frank Act of the United States and the Modern Slavery Act of the United Kingdom. Both examples show that legal requirements cannot ruin the economy, but can drive improvements faster.

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Achieving social dialogue in garment supply chains presents many challenges. Those regions where the downstream parts of the global supply chains are often located may lack both a tradition of social dialogue and the institutions that support it. With limited experience of social dialogue being available, suppliers and workers may not always be fully aware of its benefits, or familiar with the tools used in the process of social dialogue, and it therefore remains little used.

This good case practice involves the actions that Fair Wear Foundation, a partner of the Global Deal, is undertaking in order to break through the potential stalemate in negotiations and achieve more social dialogue and better industrial relations in global garment supply chains.

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The index documents violations of internationally recognised collective labour rights by governments and employers. For several years now, this "Global Rights Index" has also included a list of the ten "worst countries for working people". The number of countries where workers face threats and violence has once again increased significantly within one year. From 2016 to 2017, the number of these countries had already increased by ten percent. From 2017 to 2018, it rose again from 59 countries to 65 countries, i.e. again by more than 10 percent within one year. The 2018 Global Rights Index shows restrictions on freedom of speech and protests, as well as increasingly violent attacks on those advocating workers' rights. Decent work and democratic rights were undermined in almost all countries, while inequality continued to grow.

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