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Die Deutschen bestellen immer mehr im Netz – und schicken immer häufiger Pakete zurück. Kaum jemand weiß allerdings, dass ein großer Teil der Retouren nicht wiederverkauft wird, sondern im Müll landet. Nur Einer von Zehn ist sich dieser Verschwendung bewusst, zeigt die Greenpeace-Umfrage zum Online-Kaufverhalten 2018.

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This paper investigates how Social Accountability International (SAI) – a social certification organisation for factories and organisations, and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) – an alliance of companies, trade unions and voluntary organisations working to improve the lives of workers – have dealt with concrete complaints about abusive labour conditions in the textile and garment industry in South India. ETI aims to improve working conditions in global supply chains by implementing the ETI Base Code of labour practice. SAI aims to empower workers and managers at all levels of businesses and supply chains, using the SA8000® Standard. Both ETI and SAI have grievance mechanisms in place to deal with breaches of the ETI Base Code and the SA8000® standard. For this paper the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO, the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN and Homeworkers Worldwide (HWW) assess the effectiveness of these complaint procedures – specifically when it comes to improving the working conditions and labour rights of young women and girl workers in Tamil Nadu.

The authors draw general conclusions about the quality of these grievance mechanisms, using the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) as an evaluative frame of reference. ICN and SOMO conclude that the ETI and SAI complaint mechanisms do not provide the needed remedy to the affected workers. The mechanisms do not meet the requirements of the UNGP.

Both mechanisms need to improve procedures in terms of accessibility, legitimacy, predictability, equitability, transparency and rights-compatibility. The parties to the complaints – namely the buying companies, ETI and SAI and the certification bodies Registro Italiano Navale (RINA) and Bureau Veritas Certification (BVC) – were given the opportunity to respond to the findings at key points during the research process. The factories and spinning mills where the violations were reported are not mentioned by name in this paper but are referred to as Factory 1 etc.

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Every one of us wears shoes every day. But do we ever ask ourselves where the leather comes from to make our shoes? How is the skin of an animal turned into a shoe? Who does this work and under what conditions? This report takes us on a journey to the beginning of a leather shoe. The report looks at the leather industry in India and reveals the social and environmental impacts of tanneries. It provides a glimpse at the adverse conditions at tanneries in India, where people work with minimal or no protective gear, for payment below the minimum wage and no social security benefit. The workers themselves suffer from occupational diseases and the communities around the tanneries must deal with polluted rivers and drinking water and the dumping of solid waste without regard to environmental standards and rules. 

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The H&M group is one of the world’s largest retailers with 4,801 shops worldwide. In November 2013, H&M announced that all “H&M’s strategic suppliers should have pay structures in place to pay a fair living wage by 2018. By then, this will reach around 850 000 textile workers.” At the time, those workers made 60% of H&M’s products, sourced from ‘strategic and preferred suppliers’ which H&M grades as gold or platinum. With H&M’s deadline nearing, Clean Clothes Campaign set out to check what workers were making in some of those supplier factories, and how close that was to a living wage. In our understanding, a living wage should be earned in a standard working week and allow the garment worker and her/his family to cover basic needs: food to meet nutritional needs, housing, healthcare, clothing, transportation and education, plus 10% discretionary income for savings, or protection in case of the unexpected. Our researchers spoke with 62 workers in Bulgaria, Turkey, India and Cambodia. This document highlights their key findings as well as some additional facts that shed light on H&M’s supply chain and the brand’s progress in implementing its commitments. 

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A publication exploring solutions for tackling gender-based violence in the garment industry.

The publication revisits the issues that were discussed at the 2017 Gender Forum in Vietnam. It looks at what has changed since the 2017 Gender Forum, charting the progress achieved and the obstacles encountered by country teams over the course of the year —in Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam —as they work toward achieving the goals and pledges made during the 2017 Gender Forum.

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