Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration
Everyone deserves to be treated well at work. But for the 40 million plus workers in the global garment industry, excessively long hours, wages that are too low to live on, harassment, abuse and discrimination are all too common. The causes are complex but there's no doubt that our insatiable desire for ever cheaper, ever changing fast fashion plays a huge part. We believe things should and can be different.
Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
- Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 23.3
Assessing what labour standards actually are like in a factory is hugely complex and challenging, as is working to improve them – with systemic changes that really make a sustainable difference. All our brands do have a concern about working conditions amongst those who make their products. Most work with just a few supply chains with whom they have long term relationships which is the basis for ethical trade. We are working with our brands to understand how the ways they work to ensure good working conditions benchmark against best practice.
We use the Code of Labour Practice drafted by the Joint Initiative* on Corporate Accountability and Workers' Rights, as our definition of 'good labour standards'.
The Code is based on International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions and covers:
- Freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining
- Forced labour
- Child labour
- Non-discrimination
- Living wage
- Working hours
- Health and safety
- Employment relationship
- Abuse and harassment
*The joint initiative brings together key organisations working on labour standards:
The Ethical Trading Initiative, Clean Clothes Campaign, Fair Labour Association, Fair Wear Foundation, Social Accountability International and the Workers Rights Consortium.
The International Labour Organisation estimates that there are 246 million child labourers worldwide (aged 5-17yrs) whilst 171 million of those are working in hazardous conditions.