Pressemeldungen - Unternehmensverantwortung & Lieferkettengesetz 13 August 2019 Civil society in the textile alliance criticizes companies' roadmaps as uninformative Bonn / Berlin. The civil society organisations in the Textile Alliance criticise the roadmaps and progress reports of the member companies in the alliance. In its current form, these are not meaningful and poorly comparable. The roadmaps also showed that many companies are still at the very beginning when it comes to living wages. In addition, better working conditions in supply chains could be achieved if companies cooperate more frequently. On Monday, the Textile Alliance published roadmaps and progress reports of its members. In it, they show what measures they want to take in the field of human rights and ecology in textile production for the next year and whether planned measures were implemented in the previous year. Since this year, all companies have had to publicly report on progress and comment on anti-corruption and living wages in their roadmaps. "Civil society expects a new form of binding and comparable reporting by all member companies in the Textile Alliance on the measures they have taken to improve the working conditions of their producers," says Gisela Burckhardt of FEMNET. Many companies are still at the beginning when it comes to living wages Weaknesses in the reporting were also evident in the issue of living wages. "The majority of companies are limited to gaining more knowledge about the problem, for example by analysing their own purchasing practices," says Sabine Ferenschild from the Südwind Institute. ‘However, this is not enough. In practice, higher wages must be paid in the factories.’ Wage increases in the supply chain could be tackled more effectively if companies worked together. "The Textile Alliance provides a platform for this through the instrument of alliance initiatives", says Berndt Hinzmann from the development organisation INKOTA. Unfortunately, there is no corresponding commitment. Five of the 70 companies from the Textile Alliance are involved in the ‘ACT’ initiative for wage increases through national collective agreements in the producing countries. Only three companies have pledged to participate in ACT activities in Cambodia through a textile alliance initiative. ‘It is particularly disappointing that companies for which Cambodia is a main procurement market do not show any commitment here,’ criticises Hinzmann. Background information on the Textile Alliance This Alliance for Sustainable Textiles is an initiative launched in 2014 by the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) with the aim of continuously improving social, ecological and economic sustainability along the entire textile chain. The Textile Alliance has 18 civil society member organisations, which are represented in the steering committee by FEMNET, INKOTA-netzwerk and the SÜDWIND Institute. For more information: Roadmaps of companies Contact partners: Dr Gisela Burckhardt, FEMNET, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Tel.: 0152 01774080 Dr. Sabine Ferenschild, SOUTHWIND Institute, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Tel: 0228 7636 9816 Berndt Hinzmann, INKOTA network, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Tel.: 0160 94 69 87 70
