Femnet e.V.

Die Dokumentation beleuchtet die Folgen von Fast Fashion und verfolgt den Weg unserer Altkleider. Die Autorinnen zeigen auch Alternativen - wie beispielsweise Textil-Recycling - und klären Möglichkeiten und Grenzen entsprechender Verfahren.

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The aim of this report is to set the debate on living wages in the garment industry within a clear, legal framework. To that end, the report sets out the legal basis for a living wage being recognised as a fundamental human right and describes the duties of actors along the supply chain to fulfil and uphold that right. To arrive at this point, participants needed an accurate snapshot of the current state of law in jurisdictions important to the global garment supply chain (importing countries known as textile “hot spots”). The research project underpinning the findings of this report gathered detailed summaries from 14 countries where garment exports to the USA and to the EU create a major reliance on the industry for export earnings and employment.

The resulting country reports provide a summary of the current law on wages, benefits, social security (and other labour laws likely to impact on wages), look at wage setting mechanisms and the legal mechanisms available to workers to enforce the legal obligations of the state.

It is our intention that the report will inform advocacy at both a national and an international level. We are hopeful that its existence and content can provide an important tool in pushing for concrete and effective action, as well as a resource for those working in the fashion industry and using labour in the countries concerned.

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The purpose of this report is to provide the basis for a new proposal on living wage regulation. For the purposes of this report, we have limited our scope to the context of living wage legislation, focussing on the non-EU aspect in particular. Based on legal research we draw on 11 diverse areas of existing EU regulation with extra-territorial effect to evidence potential parallels and precedents for EU Living Wage legislation, and to provide arguments for the EU to look beyond its own borders in its regulations.

Given the limitations of cooperation, trade agreements and remedies to address wages and labour standards, the focus of our proposal is on the responsibilities of retail companies and importers to ensure that human rights are upheld within their supply chain.

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This report focuses on the South Indian garment industry clustered around Tirupur and specifically on the labour challenges faced by the industry. We conducted 135 interviews and engaged in a series of consultations with around 100 further participants (including business actors, workers, NGOs, unions, and government agencies) in South India during 2018-19 to explore these challenges and potential solutions. We found that the industry is at a crossroads. Despite decades of growth it faces three main labour challenges – competitive threats from lower cost producing countries, labour shortages, and reputational challenges around decent work.

To tackle these challenges, local actors have experimented with a range of different approaches. We identify four main alternative pathways to change: (i) Economic upgrading; (ii) Responsible migration; (iii) Relocation of manufacturing; (iv) Diversification. We recommend that the industry and its stakeholders should collaborate to develop a shared Vision 2030 and accompanying goals to address decent work and economic growth in the sector. This should be used to drive alignment around a common strategy and provide a means for external branding of the cluster. A multi-stakeholder taskforce should be formed to lead the Vision 2030 initiative.

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The Better Buying Index Report, 2019, for the first-time ever, presents a geographic analysis of the purchasing practices of brands and retailers in the apparel, footwear, and household textile sector as experienced by their global suppliers headquartered in key locations around the world. An analysis of differences in brands’ and retailers’ performance is presented to compare the relatively “better” and “worse” practices used across supplier locations. The Index Report compiles performance of 71 leading brands and retailers based on 802 ratings submitted by suppliers headquartered in 52 countries. Scores are based on a five-star scale from zero stars (worst performance) to five stars (best performance).

Better Buying is a global initiative that provides retailers, brands, and suppliers a cloud-based platform to obtain data-driven insights into purchasing activities. Better Buying’s transparency fosters sustainable partnerships and mutually beneficial financial results and other outcomes. Anonymous supplier ratings of buyer purchasing practices obtained by the independent third-party initiative are aggregated, scored, and made available to the participating retailers, brands, and suppliers with the goal of accelerating change and industry-wide improvements across supply chains.

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