What should a company do when human or labour rights violations are discovered in its supply chain?

You’ve probably read a shocking story in the newspaper about horrible conditions discovered at a factory making clothes for a well-known brand.

The brand’s spokesperson says, “As soon as we learned of the violations, we stopped doing business with the factory.” The result: workers lose their jobs, working conditions don’t improve, or worse still, garment workers may feel that better working conditions are a threat to their livelihoods.

The Clean Clothes Campaign expects companies to work out an improvement plan with factories found to be violating human rights and labour standards. They should make a long-term commitment to the supplier to give them the time to make changes and they should involve workers and local and international organisations in the process.