Femnet e.V.

Tearfund and Baptist World Aid’s Ethical Fashion Report has returned for 2018, allowing consumers to assess information on 407 different international and local fashion brands.

This is the fifth report produced by Baptist World Aid Australia evaluating labour rights management systems in the fashion industry. It grades 114 companies (covering these 407 brands), from A to F, on the strength of their policies, traceability and transparency and systems to mitigate against the risks of forced labour, child labour and exploitation in their supply chains.

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The textile industry is one of Macedonia’s most developed economic sectors, and there are over 600 companies involved at various levels of production, employing over 40,000 workers and producing over €450 million worth of exports. Textiles contribute to about 12.45% of the industrial GDP (2.4% of Macedonia’s GDP), and represented 12.4% of country exports in 2016. The Macedonian textile industry, however, represents less than 1% of global textile exports worldwide.

Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) has been active in Macedonia since 2004. According to the latest FWF annual report, ten FWF member companies were sourcing from 21 Macedonian suppliers. FWF audits show some general areas of concern, of which the first is documentation. Records are often not kept properly, making it both difficult to assess if workers receive the benefits to which they are entitled, and how many hours they actually worked. A second, much larger problem concerns health and safety. Factory audits often uncover problems with fire safety, ranging from faulty or absent fire detection systems to a lack of fire safety training.

FWF will continue to provide updated information on Macedonia on its website and will update this country study on a periodic basis in the future.

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In 2014, more than 24 billion pairs of shoes were produced. This shows the dynamics of the global market, which determines consumption with rapidly changing fashion trends in Europe and in all emerging markets with ever-increasing prosperity. Labour-intensive processes combined with time and price pressures influence the working and living conditions of workers, no matter where they are located. Global developments in this area also have an impact on working conditions within Europe, where decades of global undercutting competition have led to lower wages in low- and high-income economies. This creates an important phenomenon, namely the relocation to Europe. As a work-
We and human rights organisations are extremely concerned about the working conditions of the workers who produce our shoes wherever they live. It's time to change the way our shoes are made.
The Change Your Shoes project (CYS) has conducted an assessment of shoe companies to get an overview of the current state of the shoe industry in terms of social and environmental standards. It will also provide consumers with information on which brands are doing more and which are doing less to address the labour rights issues that exist across the global supply chain. 23 companies with a strong presence on the shopping streets of Europe were evaluated.

Editorial team: Aronsson, Charlie (Fair Trade Center); Hinzmann, Berndt (INKOTA network); Kreisler, Eva (Federación SETEM); Lucchetti, Deborah (Fair); Luginbühl, Christa (Bern Declaration); McMullen, Anna (Labour Behind the Label); Paluszek, Anna (Buy Responsibly Foundation); Pieper, Anton (SÜDWIND e.V. - Institute for Economics and Ecumenism)
German summary of the study “Trampling workers rigths underfoot”

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This country study should provide a clear and concise picture of the industry, labour law, labour conditions and industrial relations within the textile/garment industry. The study is prepared through gathering information about national laws and local stakeholders’ view on labour issues in the garment industry in Myanmar. Chapter 2, General country information, describing the economic, social, political, and governance situation as well as the general human rights situation, using international indicators and comparing the country tother garment producing countries. Chapter 3, Stakeholders, briefly presents the main stakeholders that are active in the garment/textile industry. The focus is on stakeholders who have an actual impact on labour conditions or play an active role in monitoring the situation for workers in the industry. This chapter serves as a reference point for stakeholders and brands that want tengage with or consult a local stakeholder tfind further information or help concerning their activities in Myanmar. Chapter 4, Garment industry, presents an overview of the situation for the garment industry in Myanmar, areas of production, products and prospects for the industry. Chapter 5, Industrial relations, representing the trade union situation in the country, both in general and specifically for the garment industry. This chapter gives important information for understanding how well challenges regarding working conditions could be handled through the country’s social dialogue, and how they currently are. In Chapter 6, Implementation of the FWF Code of Labour Practices, the implementation of every standard of the FWF Code of Labour Practices is assessed through official statistics on compliance (where available), laws and regulations, as well as different stakeholders views on implementation. Auditors and brands can use this section as a reference resource for their monitoring activities.

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The Clean Clothes Campaign's search tool makes it possible to search for fashion companies and find information about workers' wages, gaps in living wages and brands that supply these companies. The Facility Checker is designed for organizations to provide detailed information about operations that are important for case studies and urgent appeals, for example.

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