by Callie Rieman, AWC Hamburg
Sustainability, corporate responsibility and greenwashing (conveying a false impression or misleading information about how a company’s products are environmentally sound) are the buzzwords of the fashion world today, but the reality of being an ethical consumer and producer is far more complicated than most realize. What challenges are textile workers facing today? What challenges stand in the way of solving these problems? And with each country and brand having their own requirements, and a plethora of certification labels that almost no one understands, trying to make an ethical purchase becomes a challenge. What do all these legal requirements mean, and how can you make an ethical purchase?
Wages
One of the biggest issues that workers face is payment. Most workers are seemingly lucky to be paid the minimum wage, which is usually far too little to be considered a living wage. An estimated 80–85% of textile workers worldwide are women.1,2,3 In Bangladesh, for example, the minimum wage for full-time workers is $114 per month. Although this represents a 56 percent increase from the previous year, women textile workers get paid only 60–75 percnet of what their male counterparts get paid, severely compounding the issue of low pay.4,5 To make matters worse, when countries like Bangladesh increase their minimum wage, production shifts elsewhere and workers lose their jobs. This means it is a delicate balance of providing livable wages and keeping the market attractive so that jobs can be retained. This is an unfortunate reality that comes from companies and consumers always fighting for the cheapest price.
Safety
In 2013, workers in a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh complained about cracks in the walls. They were told to continue working if they wanted to keep their jobs. Days later, the building collapsed, killing 1,134 people. After this disaster, brands, NGOs, unions, and local industry group leaders banded together to create the International Accord. This legal framework holds brands accountable and increases worker safety. The International Accord now includes Bangladesh and Pakistan, with plans to expand to other countries. Although safety incidents still happen, under the Accord they are much less likely to occur in international export factories. Unfortunately, the domestic market remains unregulated and dangerous.
Child labor
For two decades, the occurrence of child labor was on the decline, but due to COVID-19, it increased for the first time in 20 years.6 The occurrence of child labor in main production facilities (cut-make-trim) is much lower compared to pre-production facilities, such as weaving, spinning and dyeing mills7.
Brands’ measures and challenges
Social compliance refers to a set of ethical and moral standards that companies must follow to ensure that their products are produced in a manner that is responsible, sustainable and safe for workers, consumers and the environment. A social audit is a formal review of a company’s endeavors, procedures and code of conduct regarding social responsibility and the company’s impact on society.
Auditors review documentation: cross-verify information against security camera footage, perform worker and management interviews and check machine records. After this due diligence assessment, auditors prepare a corrective action for factory improvements. Report findings are discussed with the company, which agrees to make the necessary changes within a reasonable time frame. The auditors then schedule a follow-up visit to monitor progress.
Brands often conduct or have third-party companies conduct social audits at their main production facilities, but in many cases, brands don’t know where their products are actually being produced. Sometimes the factory to which the brand gives the order passes on the order or processes to other factories without the knowledge or permission of the brand. It gets even more complicated to track down which cotton farms, spinning mills and dyeing houses were used for each order. If the brands don’t know where production happens, then working conditions cannot be monitored. In addition, most brands are only monitoring the main production facility, so subcontracting facilities and pre-production facilities (dyeing houses and spinning mills) are usually much worse in terms of safety and working conditions.
Even with the European Union creating new supply chain laws that force companies to complete their due diligence, these laws do not provide explicit guidance. For example, recent legislation requires that each company provide a functional grievance mechanism (a complaints channel for workers to report any issues) for the workers in their supply chain. Although it is a great step forward requiring companies to let workers voice their concerns and complaints and a big step in providing them with access to a remedy, in reality, this resulted in every brand creating their own separate grievance mechanisms. Each factory now has hundreds of grievance mechanisms from brands, and the workers have no idea what they are or if they can be trusted. To effectively implement legal requirements and protect workers’ rights, textile industry stakeholders must come together to develop joint solutions.
What you can do
If you have a few favorite brands, a good starting point would be to look into how they are taking care of their supply chain. Look up your favorite brand’s sustainability reports and see how they are monitoring their supply chains. You can use references like the Fashion Transparency Index or The Ethical Fashion Guide to see how your favorite brands have been ranked by third-party organizations.
The textile industry accounts for 10 percent of global carbon emissions and 20 percent of industrial wastewater pollution,8 but it is an industry in which each one of us plays a part and each one of us can have an impact.
About the Author: Callie Rieman is a 29-year-old American (CT) who has been living in Germany for 8 years. She currently lives in Hamburg with her husband and dog and is a member of the American Women’s Club of Hamburg. She enjoys traveling, photography, hiking and gardening. She works as a Corporate Responsibility Manager for a large group of importers who import food, textiles, consumer goods and electronics around the world. Callie was featured in the September 2023 issue of Inspiring Women, which focused on fashion.
References
1. The women who make our clothes are invisible. It’s time to change that ∣ Fairtrade International
4. Bangladesh hikes minimum wage for garment workers after protests | Reuters
5. Gender Pay Gap In The Apparel Industry - What Needs To Change? | fashinza.com
6. Child labour rises to 160 million – first increase in two decades | UNICEF
Photo credits: Amir Hussain, Canva