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Faced with limits of the dominant forms of private regulation, leading firms in global production networks (GPNs) are moving towards new approaches involving more collective and labour-inclusive approaches to tackle substandard labour conditions. Two notable examples of such new governance initiatives in the global garment industry are the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (the Bangladesh Accord) developed in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza disaster, and Action Collaboration Transformation (ACT), a living wage initiative spearheaded by a group of garment brands and retailers. What is unique about these agreements is that they are inclusive of trade union (local and/or global) and transnational in nature, covering supply chains of multiple multinational corporations. These initiatives, which we term transnational collective industrial relations, stood in stark contrast to firm-specific, unilateral corporate codes of conduct, which have been the dominant model of private governance since the 1990s.

This paper explores evolving relationships among leading firms and other stakeholders in the emerging field of transnational industrial relations. Considering the experiences of major German and UK garment retailers and brands, we examine how involvement in transnational collective industrial relations has led firms’ relationships to other stakeholders, particularly rival firms and Union. Data considered is mainly based on interviews with German and UK garment leading firms and members of global union federations (GUFs). Initial findings indicate that lead firms second view GUFs as important and legitimate partners for managing labour challenges in GPNs. Lead firms also positively describe intensified collaboration with rival firms. We discuss whether evolving interfirm and firm-union relations in the global garment industry can be seen as promising steps towards institutionalizing collective forms of transnational labour regulation with better outcomes for labour standards. Through this research, we seek to contribute to the literature on global labour governance by shedding light on the foundation of new governance solutions, especially the dynamically evolving relationships among leading firms and other stakeholders as collective actors.

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The aim of this report is to set the debate on living wages in the garment industry within a clear, legal framework. To that end, the report sets out the legal basis for a living wage being recognized as a fundamental human right and continued the duties of actors along the supply chain to fulfil and uphold that right. To arrive at this point, participants needed an accurate snapshot of the current state of law in jurisdictions important to the global garment supply chain (importing countries known as textile “hot spots”). The research project underpinning the findings of this report collected detailed summaries from 14 countries where garment exports to the USA and to the EU create a major reliance on the industry for export earnings and employment.

The resulting country reports provide a summary of the current law on wages, benefits, social security (and other labour laws likely to impact on wages), look at wage setting mechanisms and the legal mechanisms available to workers to enforce the legal obligations of the state.

It is our intention that the report will inform advocacy at both a national and an international level. We are hopeful that its existence and content can provide an important tool in pushing for concrete and effective action, as well as a resource for those working in the fashion industry and using labour in the countries concerned.

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The Better Buying Index Report, 2019, for the first-time ever, presents a geographic analysis of the purchasing practices of brands and retailers in the apparel, footwear, and household textile sector as experienced by their global suppliers headquartered in key locations around the world. An analysis of differences in brands’ and retailers’ performance is presented to compare the relatively “better” and “worse” practices used across supplier locations. The Index Report compiles performance of 71 leading brands and retailers based on 802 ratings submitted by suppliers headquartered in 52 countries. Scores are based on a five-star scale from zero stars (worst performance) to five stars (best performance).

Better Buying is a global initiative that provides retailers, brands, and suppliers a cloud-based platform to obtain data-driven insights into purchasing activities. Better Buying’s transparency fosters sustainable partnerships and mutually beneficial financial results and other outcomes. Anonymous supplier ratings of buyer purchasing practices obtained by the independent third-party initiative are aggregated, scored, and made available to the participating retailers, brands, and suppliers with the goal of accelerating change and industry-wide improvements across supply chains.

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The environmental impact of the leather industry is well known, with tanning being one of the most polluting industries in the world. Waste water from tanneries often contains high amounts of acids, salts and heavy metals. These toxic chemicals asnegatively impact the health of workers, as has been documented by Human Rights Watch and many others. The short film ‘The Toxic Price of Leather’ by Sean Gallagher, for instance, strikingly illustrates the harmful effects on people and environment of extreme pollution caused by tanneries of the city of Kanpur, the biggest producer and exporter of leather goods in India. Less known are the many other sustainability and human rights issues related to tthe leather and footwear production in India. This report explores labour conditions in the leather industry that are related to tdeep-rooted social inequalities in Indian society. It highlights underlying structural issues that impact the labour conditions in the leather industry in India: caste and gender discrimination. ICN feels that tackling these structural social conditions is a critical prerequisite for the success of any CSR initiative in the Indian leather industry.

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Despite the ubiquitous nature of the discourse on human rights there is currently little research on the emergence of disclosure by multinational corporations on their human rights obligations or the regulatory dynamic that may lie behind this trend. In an attempt to begin to explore the extent to which, if any, the language of human rights has entered the discourse of corporate accountability, this paper investigates the adoption of the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) human rights standards by major multinational garment retail companies that source products from developing countries, as disclosed through their reporting media. The paper has three objectives. Firstly, to empirically explore the extent to which a group of multinational garment retailers invokes the language of human rights when disclosing their corporate responsibilities. The paper reviews corporate reporting media including social responsibility codes of conduct, annual reports and stand-alone social responsibility reports released by 18 major global clothing and retail companies during a period from 1990 to 2007. We find that the number of companies adopting and disclosing on the ILO's workplace human rights standards has significantly increased since 1998 – the year in which the ILO's standards were endorsed and accepted by the global community (ILO, 1998). Drawing on a combination of responsive regulation theory and neo-institutional theory, we tentatively seek to understand the regulatory space that may have paralleled these large corporations to adopt the language of human rights obligations. In particular, we study the role that International Governmental Organisation's (IGO) such as ILO may have played in these disclosures. Finally, we provide some critical reflections on the power and potential within the corporate adoption of the language of human rights.

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