Femnet e.V.

The tragic 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse in Bangladesh represented a focusing event (Birkland, 1998) that galvanized key transnational and national stakeholders into developing and implementing policies aimed at improving factory safety in Bangladesh while being cognizant of the need to uphold related international labour standards. Drawing mainly on a survey of 50 Bangladeshi garment factory managers part of a larger project that includes lead firms based in Australia, Germany, the UK and Sweden we investigate three aspects of contemporary supply chain governance. These are: 1) Relationships between lead firms, mainly based in the developed countries, and factory management regarding business in general and labour standards in particular; 2) Factory responses to a new institutional ensemble of organizations requiring improvements in building safety; and 3) relationships between factory management and employees, both in terms of formally (worker representation) and substantive (pay and working conditions) aspects. While progress had been made in improving building safety and leading firm-factory relations appear to be positive and durable, questions remain regarding treatment of employees.

Mehr Details

Graduation from LDC status will have a significant impact on the textiles and clothing (T&C) exports of Asian graduating LDCs, reported: Bangladesh, Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR), Myanmar, and Nepal. The COVID-19 global pandemic hit the T&C sector hard, and these countries must now also prepare for any potential graduation-related challenges — including the loss of some trade preferences — to ensure a smooth transition from LDC status. How they cope will contractually depend on the extent to which such adjustments can cushion the impact on their T&C sector.

This synthesis report is based on a number of studies undertaken by several UN agencies and the World Trade Organization (WTO) into various aspects of Asian LDCs’ T&C trade and their interactions with LDC graduation-related adjustment challenges. The underlying studies particularly located such issues as individual countries’ market access provisions after graduation; the nature of their participation in the T&C global value chain (GVC) and associated implications for policy options; firm-level perceptions and preparedness about graduation-related challenges and export prospects; and perspectives of global fashion brands and retailers on their future sourcing strategy in connection to LDC graduation.

Mehr Details

The article describes the current state and dynamics of business activity of the apparel industry in Ukraine. The quantitative and qualitative indicators of the activity of apparel enterprises in the period 2015-1019 are analyzed. The strengths and weaknesses of the Ukrainian apparel industry have been identified. It is shown that Ukrainian apparel manufacturers can be competitive both in the domestic and international markets. Geographical proximity to Europe and signed Free Trade Agreement with EU giving Ukraine a clear advantage against producers in Central Asia and Far East. However, there are several problems facing the apparel industry. Among the main problems are the improvements of the management system of the apparel enterprise. In article was proposed to use outsourcing services as one of the ways to improve the apparel enterprise management system.

Mehr Details

With a focus on three recent IFAs in three economic sectors, the present working paper is a contribution to the growing body of knowledge on international framework agreements. It complements existing and ongoing research on national and cross-border social dialogue and international framework agreements by other international and regional organizations and by the ILO itself, including but not limited to research conducted for the report for the recurrent discussion on social dialogue at the International Labour Conference in 2018 and the report for the Meeting of Experts on cross-border social dialogue that is scheduled to take place in the second half of 2018. This working paper thus forms part of the ILO programme of action (2017-21) and the companion roadmap that the Governing Body agreed on in March 2017 in follow-up to the International Labour Conference’s Conclusions on decent work in global supply chains.

Mehr Details

Transparency about supply chains in the garment and footwear industry is a rapidly growing trend. The complex network of global suppliers that apparel and footwear companies use to produce their goods is much less opaque than only a few years ago. Knowing factory details revealing workers, labor organizations, human rights groups, and others to swiftly alert apparel company representatives to labor abuses in those factories, giving companies an opportunity to intervene—sooner rather than later—to stop and rectify abuses. It also facilitates brand collaboration and collective action to stop, prevent, mitigate, and provide a remedy for labor abuses.

In 2016, nine human rights and labor rights organizations, together with global Union, formed a coalition to improve transparency in garment and footwear supply chains. The coalition reached out to more than 70 companies with own-brand label products, urging them to publish on their websites a list of the names, addresses, and other details of at least the factories involved in assembling, embellishing, and finishing their goods (called tier-1 factories).

After the coalition’s first report in 2017, the 2019 report now shows a significant increase in the number of companies that have published the details of their tier-1 supplier factories (35 percent of 200 brands). The report presents different levels of progress, opposed barriers for supply chain transparency and takes a closer look at the cases of online retailers. In addition to that, the coalition summarizes company transparency practices, points out the advantages of technology and gives general recommendations.

Mehr Details