Apparel Industry Trends - From Farm to Factory

This report, by an organization called "Free2work" provides detailed information on fifty apparel companies’ CSR practices: In their words "It assesses each management system in four categories: Policies, Traceability & Transparency, Monitoring & Training, and Worker Rights. Each Free2Work indicator correlates with a piece of a system that should, if appropriately used, enable improvement in working conditions and the elimination of modern slavery. We hold that child and forced labor are far less likely in supply chains that are highly visible to companies and where workers have a voice to negotiate working conditions and speak out against grievances."

The report can be accessed through this link.
 http://www.free2work.org/trends/apparel/Apparel-Industry-Trends-2012.pdf

There has been much improvement over the last 10 years, but as this report shows, there is a lot more to do. For some, they have not even started yet.
For those companies that are in the same position at the bottom of the grade, Fair Labor Solutions can help create a path to the top.
Contact me through this site if you are interested.
Regards
Wally

Compliance initiatives to move your program forward

If you are thinking of updating your compliance program and are not quite sure what direction to take, have a listen to this recording of a webinar I did just recently on that very subject. Contact me if you need further details.

Recording Link to the Webinar:https://metricstream.webex.com/metricstream/lsr.php?AT=pb&SP=EC&rID=62050497&rKey=a0767c3fb8c39f6a

PDF Link of the Presentation: http://www.metricstream.com/presentations/Sustainable-Social-Compliance-Programs-%20Increasing-Supplier-Ownership.pdf

Towards a safe, just workplace. A report by the As You Sow foundation.

I am bringing this to your attention, as the summary of the report (see below) is also a summary of what I have identified as the way forward for more effective and sustainable compliance. The full report can be accessed here

http://www.asyousow.org/publications/2010%20Safe%20Just%20Workplace%20Report.pdf

 

If you would like to implement any of these recommendations, but are not sure how to, or have limited resources, contact me.

 

As You Sow’s research finds that in order for apparel brands and retailers to continue to improve compliance both

with their codes of conduct and conditions for workers, companies should:

• put more resources into continuous improvement – working with suppliers to build management capacity, training

workers and managers on labor rights and health and safety, as well as tracking key performance indicators;

• place greater emphasis on initiatives specifically aimed at empowering workers;

• integrate factory compliance performance into compensation for executives in headquarters. Evaluating executives

on working conditions in factories throughout the supply chain brings attention to workers to center stage;

• analyze their purchasing practices to assess if internal policies could be exacerbating compliance violations and

commit resources to improve those practices;

• develop more sophisticated technology to track the resolution and recurrence of compliance violations; and

• increase detailed public reporting on specific supply chain audit findings and remediation actions.

Regards
Wally

Join my Webinar

 Here is a link to a webinar I am hosting about labor compliance. It is on Thursday, Sept. 20^th 2012

 

Time: 8 am Pacific | 11 am Eastern

 

Please join me if you can.

 http://info.metricstream.com/social-compliance-program.html?utm_source=Campaigns&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Sep20_WC_Social_Compliance_Werbinar&Cid=70150000000chNy&Channel=Webinar

Key discussion points:

• How to increase supplier involvement and ownership
• Setting up audit scope: social and fair labor, environmental, workplace health and safety
• Developing management system assessments to understand root cause
• Managing Vendor Compliance program
• Building an approach for Sustainability
• Brand Collaboration to share results

Recent Olympic merchandise claims.

In a recent report, The Daily Telegraph discovered that machinists were working up to 10 hours a day, six days a week, to produce the official Olympics merchandise that thousands of fans will buy in stores throughout Britain.

Living in squalid conditions, workers said they earned a basic salary of $61 (£40) a month for working eight hours a day, six days a week, plus a $5 allowance for health care. They said they could take their wages up to $120 (£78) by increasing their hours to 10 per day.

Adidas insisted on Friday that workers at the factory made an average of $130 a month, and would get a pay rise later this year, along with other garment industry workers.

A spokesman for Adidas confirmed that the Phnom Penh factory produced Olympic "fanwear" but denied that the workers' pay and conditions were in breach of the organising committee's standards.
"Adidas is confident we comply with all Locog standards. Workers at the factory earn an average of $130 a month, which is well above the minimum wage," he said.

A Locog spokesman said: "We understand that the Shen Zhou factory is part of the International Labour Organisation labour rights programme, which means that it is inspected."

In this case, Locog are correct. The daily Telegraph is correct and Adidas are also correct. So what is the issue?

Well, if you go into the ILO/better Work web site, you will see that the above hours of work and overtime claims are legal. Adidas is working in a factory that meets the ILO core conventions.

However, they also have statistics such as these;

• 97% of factories audited in the last 6 months are out of compliance with overtime restrictions.
• During  the  reporting  period, garment  factories  experienced  27  strikes  involving  36,053 workers. This represents approximately a doubling of the number of strikes and the number of  workers involved as compared to the last reporting period.

Couple this with the reports of late about workers fainting in factories, clearly all is not well.

Take a good look at the better factories report, especially if you are working in Cambodia. It makes good reading.

Sourcing practices at odds with compliance goals

This story from the Financial Times gives a bit more information about Nike's assertion that their business practices can exacerbate a factory's ability to meet compliance goals.

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/d609cf9e-a434-11e1-84b1-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1z67lVImy

If Brands are really interested in making improvements to working conditions in their supply chain, they need to take a long hard look at their own sourcing practices.
Maybe if I say this long enough and loud enough, someone might take notice.

1000 workers riot in Foxconn factory.

I was having dinner last night with a good friend who's opinions I value. He said that I come across in this blog as a bit of an Apple hater and that I should tone it down.  If anyone else thinks this then I apologize. Apple is no worse than any other US brand making in China. My goal here is not to vilify Apple so much, rather it is to point out some obvious inadequacies in their Labor Compliance process.

Unless they focus on Root Causes, and Yes, that might mean taking a good look at their business practices, the improvements they say they will make will not happen anytime soon.
In a a recent article about 1000 workers in a Foxconn factory rioting, workers said the improvements promised are not happening. Whilst the reason for the riot was not labor related, tensions between management and workers remain high.

Here's a report from the Guardian outling recent investigations from SACOM, an NGO in Hong Kong

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/may/30/foxconn-abuses-despite-apple-reforms?newsfeed=true

I reiterate that unless Apple, or any other company engaged in Labor Compliance understands the probable impact that their business practices and sourcing decisions have on a factory's ability to meet their compliance objectives, they will fail to deliver on their promises.
Regards
Wally