Femnet e.V.

As with many other garment producing countries exporting to the European and American market, Cambodia has been in the spotlight because of its poor working conditions and low wages for apparel workers. The country’s garment sector engages some 750000 workers in more than 1000 factories.
The report is based on interviews with garment workers in 4 H&M supplier factories in Cambodia in February and March 2016. The factories are rated by H&M as gold and platinum suppliers. Several violations were identified in each of the factories. The H&M platinum suppliers, Eastex, Vanco and Seduno, were presumed to perform better than the selected gold supplier, M&V. However, general working conditions at the platinum suppliers were actually worse than the gold rated supplier M&V.

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France is preparing a bill relating to the duty of care incumbent upon parent and subcontracting companies, which is struggling to be definitively adopted. Yet this bill would finally make it possible to tackle the human rights violations and corruption taking place in French companies’ supply and production chains.
This report by Forum Citoyen pour la Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises shows that France is not the only European country working towards this objective. Summarizing the status of October 2016, it shows the various initiatives to curb corporate impunity across Europe – at the national level and the level of the European Union.

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Fashion Guide liefert in einem ersten Teil Hintergrundinformationen zu Ethical Fashion: vom Einkaufsverhalten von Konsument_innen über das Konzept Slow Fashion, Bedingungen in der konventionellen Modeproduktion und Alternativen. An Alternativen werden alternative Fasern und Produktionsmethoden sowie Multi-Stakeholder-Initiativen, Siegel und Standards im Bereich ökologisch produzierter Kleidung und Sozialstandards vorgestellt.
Im zweiten Teil werden öko-faire Modelabels und Modegeschäfte in Köln vorgestellt. Im Store-Register sind nach Kölner Stadtgebieten getrennt alle Geschäft aufgeführt die ökologisch und/oder fair produzierte Kleidung anbieten.

Redaktion: Annika Cornelissen (FEMNET e.V.); Elisabeth Hackspiel-Mikosch (AMD Akademie Mode & Design); Tatjana Krischik (FEMNET e.V.);Michaela Reithinger (FEMNET e.V.)

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This report presents the findings of a legal capacity-building project conducted during 2015-2016 to empower women garment workers in Bengalaru (Bangalore), Karnataka to challenge sexual harassment and violence at work.
This report evidences the high levels of sexual harassment and violence suffered by women garment workers in Bangalore and the failure of current internal grievance procedures to effectively investigate complaints and sanction perpetrators. Following a Roundtable with State policy makers and government officials in March 2016, this report makes 9 concrete recommendations for action to improve implementation of the Prevention of Sexual Harassment Act and to combat the unacceptable levels of sexual harassment and violence suffered by women garment workers on a daily basis. Although focused on one State, the findings and recommendations made in this report have relevance beyond Karnataka given the levels of violence experienced by women garment workers at other garment and textile sector hubs in both Tamil Nadu and Delhi.

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“A lot of things happen, but we cannot talk about it.” These are the words of a young North Indian migrant worker in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, one of many working in the city’s flourishing garment industry. The industry manufactures apparel for some of the world’s leading clothing brands. Yet the conditions under which these young migrant women work are appalling, sometimes even amounting to modern day slavery. Wages in the industry largely meet the official minimum wage standard, but are too low to add up to a decent living wage. Migrant women are often housed in hostels run by their companies and guarded by male security personnel at night. Their movement is severely restricted and they are herded to the factory and back to the hostel as a daily routine.
Most workers are allowed to leave the hostel for only two hours a week. Returning late invites rebuke and sometimes punishment in the form of being made to wait outside the gate for hours till the warden allows them in. Young workers hint at abuse but refuse to speak directly about it for fear of repercussions. The young women have been made to believe that these hostels, the restrictions on their freedom of movement and the presence of male security guards are necessary for their own security in an alien city where they are isolated from the local people.

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