Herausgeber_in: HWW, ICN, Somo

Kurzbeschreibung:

This paper investigates how Social Accountability International (SAI) – a social certification organisation for factories and organisations, and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) – an alliance of companies, trade unions and voluntary organisations working to improve the lives of workers – have dealt with concrete complaints about abusive labour conditions in the textile and garment industry in South India. ETI aims to improve working conditions in global supply chains by implementing the ETI Base Code of labour practice. SAI aims to empower workers and managers at all levels of businesses and supply chains, using the SA8000® Standard. Both ETI and SAI have grievance mechanisms in place to deal with breaches of the ETI Base Code and the SA8000® standard. For this paper the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO, the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN and Homeworkers Worldwide (HWW) assess the effectiveness of these complaint procedures – specifically when it comes to improving the working conditions and labour rights of young women and girl workers in Tamil Nadu.

The authors draw general conclusions about the quality of these grievance mechanisms, using the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) as an evaluative frame of reference. ICN and SOMO conclude that the ETI and SAI complaint mechanisms do not provide the needed remedy to the affected workers. The mechanisms do not meet the requirements of the UNGP.

Both mechanisms need to improve procedures in terms of accessibility, legitimacy, predictability, equitability, transparency and rights-compatibility. The parties to the complaints – namely the buying companies, ETI and SAI and the certification bodies Registro Italiano Navale (RINA) and Bureau Veritas Certification (BVC) – were given the opportunity to respond to the findings at key points during the research process. The factories and spinning mills where the violations were reported are not mentioned by name in this paper but are referred to as Factory 1 etc.

Erscheinungsjahr: 2018

Umfang: 27 Seiten

Sprache: Englisch

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Herausgeber: Labour Behind the Label, War on Want

Schlagwörter: Indien, Arbeitsbedingungen, Unternehmensverantwortung, Ethical Trading Initiative

Kurzbeschreibung:

A new report details the extremely poor working conditions in Gurgaon, India, one of the main centers of garments production in Asia.
The battle to obtain wages high enough to ensure a dignified and decent life is being fought by hundreds of thousands of mainly women garment workers in some of the poorest countries in the world.
The Taking Liberties report reveals that this struggle goes far deeper than the problem of poverty wages. Temporary contracts, systematic exclusion from social security benefits, repression of trade union organising and problems in accessing state provision of basic services mean workers have the most basic of social and economic liberties taken from them.  
Our researchers found that workers in the Indian city of Gurgaon are subject to systematic exploitation, violence and repression, long and stressful working hours, casual employment relationships, and exclusion from the social rights, protection and benefits they should be entitled to. Workers spoke of living in a climate of fear and insecurity, where their everyday choices are limited by the contractors, factory owners, landlords, and authorities who control all aspects of their lives.
These workers are not producing for the low cost, fast fashion and supermarket brands normally associated with such appalling conditions. Instead they make garments for some of the more well-respected brands on the UK high street. M&S, Debenhams, Arcadia, Monsoon and NEXT were all named by workers as major buyers from the factories where they worked. All, except Arcadia, are members of the Ethical Trading Initiative and all sell clothing at a price which should allow for a living wage and decent working conditions.  However, as this report shows, the workers of Gurgaon see no benefit from producing better quality, higher priced clothing for our high street.

Erscheinungsjahr: keine Angabe

Umfang: 20 Seiten

Sprache: Englisch

Zielgruppe: Erwachsene

Bezug: Kostenfrei zum Download bei cleanclothes.org