News about Our Work - 15 July 2019 Statement of the Clean Clothes Campaign on the Green Button Wuppertal. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) plans to introduce a state metaseal for socially and ecologically produced textiles. This metaseal is to be awarded under the name ‘Grüner Knopf’ on behalf of the BMZ for clothing and other textile products. From the point of view of the campaign for clean clothing in Germany, voluntary product certification and product labelling is not the right approach to achieve sustainable and structural improvements in terms of environmental and social risks within the global supply chain. The implementation of human rights due diligence that eliminates social and environmental risks in the supply chain requires a coherent set of measures. Legal framework conditions for the exercise of due diligence obligations by companies must be created. Voluntary forms of regulation can complement this legal framework. The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights speak of a smart mix. In such a context, a metaseal could therefore only be a supplement, which at the same time gives consumers an orientation. It is central that such a seal also clearly reflects the requirements for human rights due diligence as described in internationally recognised regulations such as the UN Guiding Principles and the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Clothing and Footwear Sector. The core elements of human rights due diligence are that companies analyse human rights risks in their supply chain, take measures to prevent or reduce these risks, and review and report on the effectiveness of these measures. With the Green Button, the BMZ is planning a state metaseal, which combines criteria for certification of the specific product based on selected seals with requirements for the due diligence of the entire company marketing the product. The inclusion of company criteria is positive in principle, but a final assessment of the Green Button through the Clean Clothes campaign depends on the final level of ambition of the criteria for evaluating companies and products. At present, 15 July 2019, a final assessment is not yet possible, as the audit grid is not publicly available for the company criteria, among other things, and is still being developed. The Green Button is scheduled to start in September 2019 with a pilot phase lasting until the end of 2020. The Green Button is filed with the German Patent and Trademark Office (DPMA) as a certification mark, which is intended to guarantee the public and consumers compliance with state-defined human rights and ecological standards in the supply chain of clothing and textiles. Prerequisite for such an application is the filing of a statute for the certification mark, in which all essential details are to be regulated as to what, on the basis of what criteria, with what checks and evidence and what sanctions the Green Button is intended to guarantee exactly to the public and consumers. These statutes as well as the conformity assessment program of the Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle GmbH (DAkkS) for the Green Button are currently being developed. These instruments therefore set out the scope and ambition of the certification mark and the requirements for certification. The level of ambition defined therein, as well as clear transparency about what the Green Button stands for, are therefore crucial for the final evaluation by the Clean Clothes Campaign. Access criteria for companies From the point of view of the Clean Clothes Campaign, the Green Button must define clear and ambitious access conditions for companies in the criteria relating to corporate diligence. Companies may only access the Green Button if they prove that they: take ambitious and appropriate measures to avoid all sectoral risks, in line with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Clothing and Footwear Sector. These include, in particular, measures to implement the ILO core labour standards, preventive measures against gender-based violence and measures to increase wages. Living wages[1] lead. Precisely because product certifications have been proven to be a Right to freedom of association If workers cannot protect effectively, companies must also take effective measures to safeguard this core labour law. This includes that trade unions have access to workers in production sites, that factory unions have the opportunity to negotiate with employers, and that in countries where there is no right to trade union freedom, other forms of workers' representation can operate in accordance with ILO Convention 135. report transparently and publicly on the measures they have taken. This includes the publication of audit reports. Publish their supplier list, including factories that manufacture licensed products. review and change their business models, supply chains, and in particular their purchasing policies, so that they comply with human rights due diligence and UN Guiding Principles. At least care must be taken to ensure that purchase prices paid to suppliers enable the payment of living wages. Both when assessing human rights risks and when taking action to address them, involve trade unions/NGOs as stakeholders. have established secure, independent and trustworthy complaint mechanisms. have provided transparent and credible evidence in the review process by state-accredited bodies, which corresponds to the human rights due diligence process and which has also been independently verified on site. One weakness of the current concept of the Green Button is that Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) allowing evidence to be provided on the company criteria that is not sufficient for transparent reporting. Requirements for product certification In the current concept of the BMZ[2] trusts the state certification mark standards of private certification organizations. In particular in the field of social standards and human rights at work, systems of private certifiers with commercial interests to be questioned are thus accepted as proof of a state seal. The product criteria on which the Green Button is based and which must be met by these private systems do not even require the pursuit of a living wage, but only the payment of a minimum wage. The current approach to the Green Button lacks sufficient regulation, assessment and monitoring of the certification standards used by a governmental institution. This could, however, set a clear level of ambition that goes beyond existing systems such as ISEAL, for example by monitoring the private certifiers of the seals in the form of independent controls and by including trade unions and non-governmental organisations from the outset in an on-the-spot verification of production conditions. In numerous publications, the Clean Clothes Campaign has documented that social audits are not able to detect labour rights violations, such as discrimination against women or the obstruction of trade union work, nor do they lead to actual improvements. Voluntary audit systems are also repeatedly used as arguments against binding regulation and control. The focus in the Green Button on product standards with certification based on audits is therefore very critical. The focus of the Green Button for the pilot phase is on the assembly and wet processes, even if an extension to lower stages of the value chain is planned in a subsequent phase from 2022. The implementation period of 3.5 years is too long (it should not be longer than two years) and is not guaranteed, but only planned. There is therefore a discrepancy to the claim, because the biggest problems in the environmental sector and in parts of the labour rights are in the deeper supply chain for steps upstream of the production process, i.e. in textile processing and in the production of raw materials or fibres. Apart from the wet processes, these are not addressed in the initial phase of the Green Button. Thus, the Green Button lags behind the market development in this area, as many companies already offer products with certified raw materials and also use (different) seals that cover the entire supply chain. Responsibility for the control and handling of complaints A state seal requires a control mechanism that is particularly effective, independent and equipped with sufficient resources and sanctioning powers. Both the actual compliance with product criteria and the observance of human rights due diligence obligations of companies require at least random checks. There is a clear responsibility for the sealing body to investigate all identified indications of injury and to enforce redress and, if necessary, compensation. The BMZ may not pass on this responsibility to other signatories, who, as we know, do not exercise it or do not exercise it sufficiently. Problems of communication Another principle criterion of the Clean Clothes Campaign for the evaluation of the Green Button is clear communication to the public: What does the Green Button certification mark stand for in detail and what are the award criteria? In public communication, it is essential that no misleading statements are made. To our current knowledge, the reference criteria do not cover all areas of due diligence requirements and recognised sector risks. In particular, the payment of a living wage is not integrated. There is also a lack of coverage of the entire supply chain. Therefore, from the point of view of the campaign for clean clothing, textiles that wear the Green Button must not be described as "fair", "socially sustainable" or the like.. The Federal Government must define in the initial phase when the other stages of the supply chain will be integrated so that the strategic character of the Green Button becomes clear. This must be transparent to the public. Transparency and traceability Minimum criteria for the credibility of a state seal are the transparency of the supply chains of the companies using the seal and the clear traceability of the origin of the garment marked with the green button. Consumers must be able to clearly understand the observance of due diligence obligations. For the company criteria, it is therefore necessary that all authorized production plants are published stating the address, the parent company of the plant, the products manufactured there and the number of employees there. This is in line with the information provided by some companies in the context of the "Transparency Pledge“ (https://transparencypledge.org/) already done. For product standards, this requires the publication of audit reports of certified production sites per factory, not in aggregated form. For traceability of the origin of the garment, it is essential that this information is available for each production site involved in the production. The concept of the Green Button offers starting points for this. For example, consumers should be able to access an online database via a QR code attached to the product, which should contain information on the fulfilment of the company and product criteria as well as on the certification and seals used for the product. However, what exactly can be seen there remains unclear at the moment. Whether the database and the information available there will meet the requirements set out here will only become apparent at a later stage. No exception for EU production There are currently many exceptions to the Green Button. It is particularly serious that companies that produce in the EU are given a blank check: Evidence of compliance with human and labour rights for product certification does not have to be provided when manufactured in EU member states, as social standards are already guaranteed due to effectively enforced legal requirements in the EU. Publications by the CCC on Bulgaria or Romania as the largest European textile manufacturers show systemic problems such as non-payment of the statutory minimum wage and forced labour. Nowhere in the world is the gap between the actual wage of garment workers and a livelihood wage as wide as in the EU's low-wage countries. The OECD's due diligence approach and the UN Guiding Principles address all production sites along the entire supply chain. For these reasons, too, the Green Button must not, from the point of view of the campaign for clean clothing, make an exception to the obligation to provide proof of production in a member state of the EU. result In line with the smart mix of the UN Guiding Principles, the Clean Clothes Campaign sees the need and importance of an ambitious design of the first pillar ‘duty to protect’, which identifies the duty of states to protect human rights also against threats from economic actors, and for this reason states are encouraged to ‘consider a smart mix of national and international, binding and voluntary measures to promote respect for human rights by businesses’. Whether the Green Button can make a contribution to this, can finally only be said when the articles of association of the registered warranty mark, including the intended test procedure and the test grid are available to the public. A state seal will also develop a high radiance outside the Federal Republic and citizens and progressive entrepreneurs rightly do not expect a seal that is quickly brought to market with many compromises. but irrefutable, meaningful and human rights-oriented criteria, maximum transparency, effective and active state control and accountability. We strongly call on the BMZ to better address the critical points raised in this opinion (access criteria for companies, product certification requirements, strong control mechanisms, clear communication, transparency and traceability, no exception for EU production) in the final concept of the Green Button. Press contacts: Executive Committee of the Clean Clothes Campaign Germany Ingeborg Mehser, Speaker at the Church Service in the World of Work Bremen, Tel: 0421 346 1523, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Maik pflaum, Labour Rights Officer of the Romero Christian Initiative, Tel: 0911 214 2345 and 0151 206 544 30, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Uwe Wötzel, Trade Union Secretary of the United Services Union, Berlin, Tel: 030 6956 1039, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ______________________________ [1] The Clean Clothes Campaign defines a living wage as a wage paid for a standard working week (maximum 48 hours) that covers the worker's expenses and dependent family members. [2] Status: Technical reference document of 20 March 2019
