News - The Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (Textiles Partnership)

Expectations of FEMNET/CCC on the Textile Alliance and the Federal Government

Statement by the CorA Corporate Responsibility Network and the Clean Clothes Campaign on the Textile Alliance (Download as PDF file)

For many years, the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and the CorA Corporate Responsibility Network have been committed to upholding human rights and internationally agreed social standards and norms among transnational corporations, their subsidiaries and suppliers.

The factory fires in Pakistan and Bangladesh in autumn 2012 as well as the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in April 2013 with thousands of deaths and injuries have shown that in the production countries of textiles, compliance with minimum standards in terms of safety and health protection is not even guaranteed. Other problems such as wages that are barely enough to survive, sexual harassment in the workplace, the restriction of trade union freedom and the use of toxic and hazardous chemicals have also been known for years.

In the light of such facts, the CorA Corporate Responsibility Network and the CCC call for legal provisions such as the introduction of mandatory human rights due diligence, as suggested by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Legal regulations would ensure that all companies comply with human rights and internationally agreed social and environmental standards. Companies would then be required to identify and investigate the impact of their operations on human rights and the environment along the entire value chain, counteract negative impacts, and repair and repair any damage that has occurred.

As adequate legal regulations do not yet exist, CCC and the CorA network welcome the Voluntary Alliance for Sustainable Textiles of Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development Gerd Müller as an important step to advance eco-social standards in the global textile supply chain. It is gratifying that the entire value chain from the cotton field to the final product is involved and that companies in Germany should change their purchasing policy through reasonable prices and delivery times. Another positive aspect is that the requirements of the action plan aim to pay living wages. For this purpose, the alliance has set time targets for 2020 and 2025, respectively. The action plan also aims to improve the framework conditions in the producing countries and to make recommendations for policy and policy coherence in Germany and the EU. It is therefore a clear intention to also take action at EU and international level.

The biggest obstacle seen by the CorA network and the CCC is that none of the major players such as Adidas, Aldi, KiK, Lidl, Otto, Tchibo, Puma or the trade associations HDE and AVE have joined the textile alliance so far. Even more than 100 days after its foundation, the alliance consists almost exclusively of member companies that have already made a name for themselves by producing fairly and ecologically.

The refusal of the major players to join the Alliance underscores once again the urgency of introducing binding rules for all companies. Companies should not be able to choose whether or not to comply with their existing human rights, social and environmental responsibilities.

Concrete expectations for the Textile Alliance and the Federal Government:

If the large companies do not join a voluntary alliance by June 2015, the Federal Government is to approve a voluntary alliance by the end of 2015. Template for a legal regulation be worked out. This law should include mandatory human rights due diligence along the entire value chain, including sanctions for companies for violations, as suggested by the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Minister Müller has already discussed such a legal regulation if the voluntary alliance does not come about.

If a critical mass of companies and associations join the Alliance for Sustainable Textiles by June 2015, CCC and CorA expect:

  1. The Action Plan including the time targets set out in it, should continue to: be clarified and implemented swiftly.
  2. In selected countries of production (India, Bangladesh, etc.) with the support of the BMZ Pilot projects at the pre-fabrication stages (cotton production, spinning, weaving) to be started.
  3. The BMZ should support the development of credible verification initiatives and high-level certifications.
  4. The federal government should own purchasing power use it to comply with high social and environmental criteria in the production of clothing by consistently aligning its procurement with environmental and social criteria. With the entry into force of the new EU Procurement Directive, it may favour (working) clothing companies in public procurement that have, for example, joined the Alliance or can provide credible evidence.
  5. A mandatory Traceability of textiles should be introduced and transparency should be produced by publishing EU import documents and customs declarations, e.g. by introducing an electronic label system or a link between a label number and an online database.
  6. At EU level, the Federal Government, together with other states, should Human Rights-Oriented Trade Policy push forward. This should include:

a) one Systematic analysis of possible human rights implications of EU trade agreements before their signature. Previous sustainability impact assessments do not examine the impact on the social human rights of poverty groups, such as textile workers. The upcoming revision of the Handbook on Sustainability Impact Assessments of EU trade agreements should enshrine human rights as a fundamental criterion. In addition, the negotiations must no longer take place in secret, but should be conducted in a transparent manner. Civil society must therefore be granted access to the negotiating documents of both parties in the future.
b) one Reform of the usual human rights clauses in EU trade agreements. So far, the implementation of human rights and social clauses in trade agreements has hardly been reviewed and violations remain mostly without consequences. In the future, human rights clauses should allow for the suspension and revision of treaty provisionsif they have proven to be a threat to human and labour rights. Regular human rights impact assessments and the establishment of civil society should also be carried out. Complaint mechanisms foreseen in future trade agreements. After about two years, an interim review of the implementation of trade agreements, in particular compliance with human rights and social clauses, should be presented by the Commission.
c) a systematic Verification of compliance with human rights and labour law requirements of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), under which many countries enjoy duty-free and quota-free (EBA) or preferential access (GSP+ and general GSP) to the EU market. In the event of serious and systematic violations of human rights treaties and ILO core labour standards, the EU should make use of the possibility provided for in the GSP to suspend trade preferences.

27.2.2015