Romania: Country Study 2014 - 2015 The country study provides a picture of the textile and garment industry in Romania, its labour laws, conditions and industrial relations within the industry. It is prepared by collecting information about national laws and local stakeholders’ views on labour issues. Mehr Details
Two pairs of shoes? Indonesian leather shoe production and labour rights If you want to know under what social and ecological conditions leather shoes are produced that are worn in Europe, it is worth taking a look at Indonesia. Despite initial labour law achievements and far-reaching legal provisions, there is often a lack of practical implementation of these laws. Working conditions throughout the Indonesian leather and footwear industry in Indonesia urgently need to be improved, according to the study. This applies in particular to the precarious and lawless situation of the numerous home workers, but also to the areas of employment contracts, wages and freedom of assembly. Companies have a responsibility to fully respect fundamental human and labour rights along the entire value chain. Editorial team: Melanie Deter, Nora Große, Jannik Krone, Vera Schumacher Mehr Details
License to Greenwash – How Certification Schemes and Voluntary Initiatives are Fuelling Fossil Fashion The fashion sector is awash with certification schemes, sustainability labels and multi-stakeholder initiatives all seeking to steer the industry onto a greener course. As public and political awareness of the high environmental and social toll of the fashion industry has climbed the agenda, and scrutiny on brands has been intensified, so has the visibility of certification schemes and voluntary initiatives pitched as holding the solutions. Mehr Details
Case closed, problems persist This paper investigates how Social Accountability International (SAI) – a social certification organisation for factories and organisations, and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) – an alliance of companies, trade union and voluntary organisations working to improve the lives of workers – have dealt with concrete complaints about abusive labour conditions in the textile and garment industry in South India. ETI aims to improve working conditions in global supply chains by implementing the ETI Base Code of labour practice. SAI aims to empower workers and managers at all levels of businesses and supply chains, using the SA8000® Standard. Both ETI and SAI have grievance mechanisms in place to deal with breaches of the ETI Base Code and the SA8000® standard. For this paper the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO, the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN and Homeworkers Worldwide (HWW) assess the effectiveness of these complaint procedures – certainly when it comes to improving the working conditions and labour rights of young women and girl workers in Tamil Nadu. The authors draw general conclusions about the quality of these grievance mechanisms, using the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) as an evaluative frame of reference. ICN and SOMO conclude that the ETI and SAI complaint mechanisms do not provide the needed remedy to the affected workers. The mechanisms do not meet the requirements of the UNGP. Both mechanisms need to improve procedures in terms of accessibility, legitimacy, predictability, equitability, transparency and rights-compatibility. The parties to the complaints – namely the buying companies, ETI and SAI and the certification bodies Registro Italiano Navale (RINA) and Bureau Veritas Certification (BVC) – were given the opportunity to respond to the findings at key points during the research process.The factories and spinning mills where the violations were reported are not mentioned by name in this paper but are related to as Factory 1 etc. Mehr Details
Opportunities and barriers to more sustainable clothing consumption - First results of the InNaBe representative survey 2017 The representative survey as part of the InNaBe research project was intended to investigate a) which factors determine the consumption of and handling of clothing and b) to what extent the necessary changes towards more sustainable clothing consumption are supported by consumers and in which social segments sustainable innovations can be expected to be rapidly diffusioned and which obstacles or drivers exist. The following contents were taken into account in the survey: Awareness of the problem of clothing production and consumption Personal Importance of Fashion and Clothing Attitudes to buying clothes Requirements for clothing / purchase motives Scope of clothing purchase Duration of use of garments Reasons for sorting out clothes Attitudes towards socially and environmentally soundly produced clothing Attitudes to second-hand clothing Attitudes towards the use of offers that may contribute to the prolongation of the period of use of clothing, barriers Willingness to restrict clothing purchase/consumption Read more …
