Femnet e.V.

News & Press Releases - Living Wage now!

23 June 2020 How much does a seamstress really earn? Inconvenient questions for Zalando

Bonn, 23.06.2020 – On the occasion of the fashion retailer’s shareholders’ meeting on 23 June 2020, the women’s rights organisation FEMNET Zalando calls for the creation of a ‘fund for living wages’ for the seamstresses in its supply chain. FEMNET also calls for transparency on Zalando's purchasing practices. At the same time as the publication of the Fashion checkers, Uncovering details of wages in the supply chains of 108 fashion brands around the world, the company is said to provide information on due diligence obligations towards employees in its supply chain.

What is Zalando doing about the hunger wages in the textile factories? How does it protect workers in its supply chain in the face of the coronavirus pandemic?

Hunger wages in the clothing industry are often hidden in the depths of complex and mysterious supply chains. The website Fashion checker, The Clean Clothes Campaign's new online tool reveals details about wages in the supply chains of the world's largest fashion brands and reveals where and how clothing was made. 108 fashion retailers were surveyed – for the first time on a nationwide scale. The sobering result: 93% of the fashion houses surveyed do not pay their suppliers a wage that is sufficient for the workers to live – Zalando is one of them.

The extremely low wages in defiance of human rights have enabled numerous fashion brands to make billions of dollars in profits for decades. The prices for the suppliers are depressed. Fashion brands force their suppliers to operate at very low profit margins. From such low prices, producers can only pay poverty wages. Zalando is no exception. Although the company has joined the Action Collaboration Transformation (ACT) initiative, which advocates wage increases in producing countries, it is not - as is often claimed - about living wages, but about the agreement of a flat-rate collective agreement.. In addition, ACT is only active in a few selected countries and the chances of success of the initiative are uncertain..

"Fashion brands and retailers must finally ensure that the people who make clothes for companies like Zalando can live on their wages in a dignified way. Workers and their families who work for starvation wages are at the mercy of times of crisis like these," explains FEMNET employee Sina Marx. “Thus, Zalando condemns its workers and their families to hunger, disease and lack of prospects. We at Zalando want to know what concrete measures the company is taking to prevent this from happening.”

The shareholder therefore calls on Zalando to create a ‘fund for living wages’, which should gradually raise the wage level until the group fulfils the internationally recognised human right to living wages. ‘After all, 25 percent of the companies examined in the ‘Fashion Checker’ have taken steps to achieve a living wage, of which nothing can be read at Zalando’, says Gisela Burckhardt, CEO of FEMNET.

"Zalando complied with our demands last year and published its suppliers, but only 80 percent. This is a good first step, but why not 100 percent? In order to assess the working conditions on the ground, we also need reliable information on respect for human rights, wages, discrimination and whether workers can organise freely on the ground", says Sina Marx.

background

FEMNET is a member of the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and is committed to improving working conditions in the apparel industry. The new online tool Fashion checker increases transparency in the apparel industry and sheds light on starvation wages, excessive overtime and the exploitation that prevails in the industry despite all the contradictory assertions of fashion houses.

 

Contact:

Sina Marx, FEMNET e.V. / Campaign for Clean Clothes
Tel.: 0163 – 8712171
Mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

About FEMNET e.V.

FEMNET is a non-profit women's rights organization based in Bonn. Founded in 2007, the association advocates for better working conditions in the clothing industry of the global South, where much of the clothing used in the West is sewn. FEMNET requires companies to comply with social standards along the entire supply chain, for which the policy should create binding rules. Women in India and Bangladesh support FEMNET through a mutual legal assistance fund. In addition, the association supports partner organizations in the work against violence against women in the workplace and for better childcare in textile factories. In Germany, FEMNET conducts educational work at universities and schools, advises cities and municipalities on the purchase of fair workwear and provides information on seals and fair-produced clothing.