For many years now, there has been a great deal of information about the negative impact of our consumption patterns on human rights and the environment. For example, in 2013, the collapse of Rana Plaza and the deaths of over 1,100 workers producing clothes for major clothing retailers highlighted the appalling working conditions in fast-fashion sweatshops.
Has the situation in Bangladesh changed since then?
For Zoé Dubois of achAct: “The collapse of Rana Plaza was a major shock and a very concrete step forward, with the Agreement on Working Conditions in Bangladesh, but it only concerned building safety, not workers’ living wages. The agreement requires signatory companies to disclose their subcontractors in Bangladesh – quite an important point in a very non-transparent sector -, have independent safety audits carried out in the factories supplying the brands and oblige companies to contribute financially to the refurbishment of factories when safety problems are identified.”
Its successor, the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry, came into force in September 2021. This new agreement addresses not only safety issues but also the health of workers. It is implemented by the Ready-Made-Garment (RMG) Sustainability Council (RSC), an independent tripartite body made up of brands, unions and industry representatives. “There are plans to extend it to countries other than Bangladesh, which is not the only country with production building safety problems. For example, there are many calls for the agreement to be extended to Pakistan,” explains Zoé Dubois.
Unfortunately, “Made in Europe” is no guarantee of quality
When we hear stories about the situation of female workers on the other side of the planet, it is tempting to see “Made in Europe” as a guarantee of good working conditions. However, this instinct is refuted by Bojana Tamindžija, a Serbian member of the Clean Clothes Campaign, who points out the deplorable situation in Eastern European countries: “After the collapse of the Soviet Union, at the end of the Eastern bloc, we witnessed a large-scale destruction of the local economy. We became something of a pool of cheap labour. In Serbia, for example, we lost 65% of jobs in industry between 2001 and 2009. Unemployment is huge and provides good opportunities for companies to exploit the situation. Most workers are forced to take on other jobs due to low wages. Women combine two jobs, to which are added family responsibilities such as childcare and housework. We are facing a phenomenon of time poverty, as these women no longer have the time to do anything but work, either to earn money or at home.”
The living wage: a key element in ethical fashion
“The countries of Eastern Europe are therefore competing with each other to attract investors against a backdrop of very high unemployment. Many governments offer subsidies to attract foreign companies. In Serbia, for example, the government gave the company Geox 10,000 euros for each new job created. There is a kind of ‘race to the bottom’ which results in lower wages and weaker social legislation. Statutory minimum wages do not reflect the cost of living at all. They are negotiated between companies and our governments.That is why we calculated a ‘cross-border’ living wage, a concept completely unknown in our regions”, explains Bojana Tamindžija.
A living wage is what a worker needs to provide for their family (water, food, clothing, housing, schooling and health care, including a small reserve for a rainy day).
“What is very shocking is that the living wage we determined is three times higher than what workers earn today. In Ukraine, before the war, you had to work 60 minutes to earn enough money to buy a litre of milk. In Germany, if you earn minimum wage, you only need to work six minutes to buy one. And in many countries, it takes between 30 and 40 minutes. This gives an idea of the differences in wages, as well as living conditions.
Changes needed on three levels
So it is the business model, whatever its geographical location, and our buying practices that need to change. For Tatiana De Wée of Fashion Revolution Belgium, change has to come at the political, consumer and industry levels.
“First of all, at the political level, we need to legislate on companies’ duty of care with regard to human rights and the environment. We can then advocate a cultural change at the consumer level. Most people don’t know where the clothes they buy come from, who made them or how much they cost. And you don’t always have to buy sustainable clothes, which can be very expensive. Our clothing needs should be seen as a pyramid, just as there is a food pyramid. First, we need to look at what we have in our wardrobe, because we are a long way from wearing all our clothes, and see how we can reuse them on a daily basis. We can also develop other practices. For example, if you need a dress just for one evening, you could consider renting it rather than buying it. Clothes can be exchanged, loaned and repaired. And thirdly, of course, industry must follow suit, especially when it comes to paying workers a living wage.”
The EU wants to legislate to force companies to respect human rights and the environment
At the political level, Europe has the upper hand when it comes to trade legislation. In April 2020, the European Commission announced a legislative initiative on corporate social responsibility, notably through a duty of due diligence. This duty of diligence is an obligation for companies to identify, prevent, mitigate and report on how they manage the negative impacts of their activities (or those of their subcontractors and suppliers) on human rights and the environment. What is at stake and what is needed to make this draft directive even more effective?
For Bojana Tamindžija, it is clear that the very first issue at stake in such legislation is “a better distribution of profits, because if we look at the difference between the wages received by women workers and the profits made by the fashion industry, it has to stop, it’s really not balanced. And of course, a whole series of elements needs to be included, such as better working conditions, as well as an effective and robust complaints mechanism so that workers know who to turn to when they have problems in certain value chains.The proposal on the table does not go far enough. It must apply to all companies, regardless of their size, and target the entire value chain, right down to subcontractors. The process must be transparent and, above all, the legislation must include the right to a living wage, as this is linked to the fair sharing of profits,” states Bojana Tamindžija.
For Michel Hublet, Sustainability Manager at Stanley/Stella, if the legislation applies to all companies, “it must also take into account the differences between large and small companies. Larger companies have far greater financial and human resources at their disposal for monitoring than smaller ones. Stanley/Stella has a limited number of suppliers and has offices in Bangladesh, so we can be very close to our factories, but that’s not necessarily the case for all companies, for which it is very complex to set up this whole duty of diligence process. Politicians, as well as NGOs, have a role to play in fostering collaboration between suppliers and companies, and we also need platforms so that we can work together to improve things.”
For Zoé Dubois, “implementing due diligence at individual company level is very complicated. Structural problems can’t be changed only by voluntary action on an individual scale. That’s why we advocate agreements, like the international agreement on Bangladesh, which bring companies to the table to participate collectively in refurbishing factories. And the same issues apply to legislation on the duty of diligence, to make companies accountable for their purchasing and commercial practices, because years of voluntary measures have failed to change things.Poor working conditions in Bangladesh are not just the fault of the country itself; they are also the result of pressure to keep wages very low, to continue attracting investors, etc. Companies also have a role to play here, in the purchasing practices they impose on their suppliers and the pressure they exert on governments and suppliers, with the threat of relocation. And we now know that Ethiopia, for example, is a new textile Eldorado because it’s even cheaper than Bangladesh.”
Some companies are moving in the right direction
With regard to companies, Michel Hublet sees several challenges to effectively improving transparency and working conditions in clothing supply chains. “The first is the complexity of the value chain. If I take the example of Stanley/Stella, which has just celebrated its tenth anniversary, our young company has grown a lot. Given the company’s growth, it would be easy to increase the number of suppliers. However, we try to limit them to ensure better control, involvement on their part and a long-term relationship. We have ten suppliers in Bangladesh and one in China. We have people in every factory, quality assurance managers in daily contact with the factory management and people, and we have a 30-strong Stanley/Stella office in Bangladesh, which monitors the factories on a daily basis. Next, we use a range of tools, such as audits, before accepting a new supplier. These audits cover a number of environmental, social and safety issues. Audits are also carried out every year, with monthly reports on practices, and problems with employees and workers. We even have daily reports on overtime, as this is a major problem in these countries and we don’t want it to become the rule in the factories we work with.
The second challenge is strengthening collaboration between the different links in the value chain, going beyond clothing suppliers to the cotton fields. Stanley/Stella needs more than 15,000 cotton growers for its clothing sales. Getting down to the level of the farmers is really quite complex.
The third challenge is the cultural difference and the difference in objectives between countries. Raising workers’ wages is on the agenda, and we have even made presentations to the top management of factories in Bangladesh to tell them we are prepared to pay more. But that’s not how it works. Minimum wages are set every five years by the trade association (BGMEA), which does not necessarily allow us to increase wages however we want, as if one factory raises wages unilaterally, this risks creating tensions with other factories (workers in other factories may react, go on strike, etc.). So it’s not quite as simple as that. Also, BGMEA and Bangladesh have an interest in keeping wages low to ensure the country’s competitiveness against other textile-producing countries.”
Stanley/Stella also works downstream in the supply chain, striving to be as close to its customers as it is to its suppliers. “I think our company is one of the only ones in this sector to have what we call official dealers of whom we make demands, particularly on the environmental front. For example, we sell GOTS-certified organic cotton and ask our customers to use inks that are not harmful to the environment. We also include our suppliers and customers in our carbon analysis. We calculated emissions from the cotton field to the end of the product’s life.”
As buyers, public authorities also have a role to play in promoting more ethical clothing production.
The city of Ghent is a good example of a public initiative in responsible purchasing, particularly in the clothing sector. “Our strategy is two-pronged,” explains Virginie Verstraete, Policy Advisor in the city of Ghent’s International Solidarity team, “on the supply side, through our purchasing policy, and on the demand side, by raising awareness among Ghent residents. We try to bring the two together.
Fair trade is part of our purchasing policy, as it is an important lever for moving towards a sustainable economy and society. We use Fairtrade certification for four product categories when purchasing for the city: food, natural stones, new technologies and clothing. When Rana Plaza collapsed, we decided we absolutely had to work on textiles.
Also because Ghent has an industrial past in this sector. But we started by conducting a market study with partners such as the Association of Flemish Cities and Municipalities to answer a number of questions: Is it feasible for suppliers to meet fair trade specifications? How far can we go, etc.? At the end of this study, it was decided that fair trade would be an important component of the city’s workwear purchasing.
Lessons learned and shared experience from the city of Ghent
“To share our experience, we produced a toolbox that explains how to issue a call for tenders, how to search for suppliers and what to look out for, such as whether the requested standards are realistic.
Having strict requirements isn’t easy, so it’s important to explore the market beforehand to talk to potential suppliers and see what they can offer and what’s feasible. We need to enter into a dialogue and seek collaboration. Suppliers are prepared to do this, but they must also be given the opportunity to progress.
It is also important to find partners to carry out the inspections. We require Fairtrade, organic cotton in our tenders, but we can’t carry out the inspections ourselves. We therefore look for independent partners who can carry out supplier checks. These are two important lessons we can share.”
Is it always easy for a company to meet the specifications of public authorities keen to include greater sustainability in their purchasing? What difficulties have you encountered?
Michel Hublet: “The biggest problem in the public sector, as well as in the private sector, is a lack of product knowledge. What is a “sustainable” product? We hear “sustainable” everywhere, but what does it mean? What is behind the widely varying certification standards? Secondly, unfortunately, prices still dominate public procurement. If the public authorities want sustainable products, sustainability must be the first criterion for awarding contracts, along with quality, ahead of price. It must not be a “nice to have” at the end of the price negotiations. We need to educate the public authorities. A few months ago, we had a meeting on this subject with Brussels parliamentarians, organised by Enabel’s TDC.
We explained what a sustainable product is, what certifications exist and the differences between them. It’s also important to find out about potential suppliers as part of an ongoing development process.”
A campaign to sit down with the European Union
Raising public awareness also plays a key role in the drive towards more ethical production and consumption. The “Good Clothes, Fair Pay” campaign directly concerns the living wages of female workers. “Our aim, along with other organisations, is to collect a million signatures so that we can sit down with the European Union and exert pressure, because at the moment we can see that the living wage is a stumbling block in the legislation being prepared on corporate duty of care, which does not go far enough,” explains Tatiana De Wée.
Conclusions
The exploitation of workers and the environment is not about geography, but business models, the rules of the “game” and behaviour that needs to change. The documentary “Open Secret: au cœur de la mode Made in UK”, showed the disastrous working conditions under which some 10,000 people currently make clothes in Leicester, the historic city of the British textile industry, reminding us that “Made in Europe” is not a guarantee.
Respecting the rights of workers in the textile industry and paying them a wage that enables them to live decently, requires commitments from all parties: from governments, through binding legislation and responsible purchasing policies; from companies, through greater transparency in supply chains and purchasing practices that respect human rights and the environment; and from citizens/consumers who, instead of choosing very cheap clothes, can purchase quality garments that last longer, pay better wages and generate less pollution at the end of the chain. We owe this to the thousands of people who produce and make the clothes that protect us and form part of the image we project to others.
