Latest News
G7 Fashion Deal can only be meaningful if it aligns with UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights
This weekend, a coalition of 32 large apparel companies launched a G7 Fashion deal for sustainably produced textiles, pledging to protect the environment. Clean Clothes Campaign welcomes the intentions behind this pledge, but stresses that the time of non-committal promises is over and that the steps forward should be embedded in legally binding legislation and agreements as well as existing international frameworks.
New safety initiative launched in India today ignores vital lessons from the past
A building safety initiative launching in India today, aimed at improving safety for workers in the country’s garment industry, is set on a path to ignore workers’ voices and replicate mistakes from the past. Although the “Life and Building Safety Initiative” professes to learn from the programme that made factories safe in Bangladesh after the Rana Plaza building collapse, it ignores its most vital elements.
Faded denim look comes at a steep price
Clean Clothes Campaign Turkey investigated the Turkish denim industry's use of Potassium Permanganate. Research revealed that workers use it in spray form to create the faded look in denim. The workers reported suffering skin and respiratory problems.
The Bangladesh Accord continues to operate but its independence may be at risk
As witness signatories to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, we are concerned about the potential negative impact on worker safety, both short-term and long-term, of the recently concluded Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Accord and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and the diverging interpretations that have emerged over the last few weeks.
Major brands are failing on living wage commitments
Our latest report reveals that no major clothing brand is able to show that workers making their clothing in Asia, Africa, Central America or Eastern Europe are paid enough to escape the poverty trap. That means that apparel brands and retailers are violating internationally recognized human right norms, and their own Codes of Conduct.
Questions raised after agreement reached on Bangladesh Accord
On 19 May 2019, the Appellate Division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court accepted a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached earlier this month between the Bangladesh Accord Steering Committee and the Bangladesh employers’ association in the ready-made-garment sector, BGMEA. The MoU stipulates that the Accord will continue to operate in Bangladesh for a transition period of 281 working days, during which time brands, unions and the BGMEA will establish a new institution called the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC), which will take over the Accord’s tasks in 2020.
Western European brands are profiting from poverty wages in Romania: Europe’s biggest fashion manufacturer.
Garment workers in Romanian earn a mere 14 percent of a living wage. Therefore their family members have to search for precarious jobs in Western Europe.
Safety program established six years ago in Bangladesh has saved lives and stopped retaliation across hundreds of factories
An independent mechanism allowing garment workers to directly raise safety issues is making factories safer and empowering workers to advocate for their own safety, according to a report published today by the International Labor Rights Forum. The success of the complaint mechanism run by the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh – trusted by workers for its independence and its effectiveness – is one more reason why the program should remain in Bangladesh and continue to operate independently until the government and local institutions are ready to take on the task. The next High Court hearing that could determine the future of the Accord is scheduled for this Sunday, May 19.
Amidst Wave of Deadly Fires, Bangladesh Government Threatens to Expel the Only Credible Building Safety Programme in the Country and Further Suppress Workers’ Rights
On the sixth anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse, labour rights groups are calling on the government of Bangladesh to cease attempts to expel the Accord on Fire and Building Safety from Bangladesh and to urgently increase safety efforts for the buildings currently under the government’s oversight, which include tens of thousands of factories across all industries.
Not a single worker is making a living wage yet H&M claims to have done an amazing job
In the latest sustainability report and the accompanying public communication H&M continues to mislead the public about its progress in the area of living wage. H&M’s practice of making empty promises and bogus claims of great achievements cannot go unchallenged. Regardless of how much money and brainpower H&M pours into its corporate communication, it is an undeniable fact that workers at H&M supplier factories are still far from earning living wages.
Former Uniqlo garment workers attend flagship store opening in Denmark to highlight Uniqlo’s wage-theft
Between 2 and 7 April, two Indonesian garment factory workers, who made Uniqlo clothing for years, will be in Copenhagen as part of the global PayUp Uniqlo campaign. They demand that the brand fulfills the debt owed to workers following the unexpected closure of their factory in 2015. The workers’ visit coincides with the opening of the first Uniqlo store in Denmark on April 5th where CEO Tadashi Yanai is expected to attend.
Government of Bangladesh not ready to take over Accord’s safety work
The government of Bangladesh is using proceedings before the Supreme Court of Bangladesh to prevent the Accord on Fire and Building Safety, the safety programme established in the aftermath ofthe Rana Plaza collapse, from operating, thereby putting workers’ safety at risk. A ruling on 7 April in Bangladesh’s Appellate Court could require the Accord to close its Dhaka office and operations without taking into account whether national agencies would be ready to take up the work.
NGOs welcome MEP initiative on responsible business conduct
A coalition of ActionAid, Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery International, Clean Clothes Campaign, the European Coalition for Corporate Justice and FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) hope this will lead the European Commission to follow suit and take immediate steps to develop an action plan.
Hundreds of women workers part of longest running strike in the Katunayake Investment Promotion Zone
Workers from workwear manufacturing company ATG Ceylon Pvt Ltd. in Sri Lanka have been subject to a range of human rights abuses breaching both Sri Lankan and international labour laws and conventions. Hundreds of women workers, part of the Free Trade Zone and General Services Employees’ Union (FTZ-GSEU) have been on strike for over two months, now the longest running strike in the Katunayake Investment Promotion Zone. Two workers are now on hunger strike.
Labour and human rights groups urge multi-stakeholder initiatives and business associations in the apparel sector to adopt transparency requirements
In response to requests from trade unions, and other independent labour rights and human rights organizations, on February 27 the Fair Labor Association (FLA) voted to require its company affiliates to publicly disclose their supplier lists. Details concerning the implementation of this decision, including the scope of disclosure, remain to be seen. However, if the FLA follows this decision with robust enforcement of this requirement for its member companies, it will be a significant development towards greater transparency and corporate accountability for garment workers’ rights in global supply chains. Members of the Transparency Pledge Coalition, a group of global unions and other independent labour rights and human rights organizations, will be monitoring this decision to ensure its full and meaningful implementation while calling on other apparel sector Multi-Stakeholder Initiatives (MSIs) and business associations to follow suit.
Garment factory fire confirms Bangladeshi inspection agencies are not yet up to their task
A fire in a Bangladeshi garment factory in Dhaka this week injured eight people, local media reports say. This tragic incident happened during a period of uncertainty and negotiation about the future of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh: the one international safety programme that has significantly improved worker safety in the garment industry since the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse. This week’s fire confirms that, despite the Bangladesh government’s assertions to the contrary, national inspection bodies are not yet ready to take over this important work.
Progress made since Rana Plaza collapse at risk
The safety programme that has been instrumental in restoring international trust in the Bangladeshi garment industry after the deadly Rana Plaza collapse of 2013 risks being expelled from the country without a credible alternative in place. Negotiations between signatories of the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the government of Bangladesh have grounded to a halt, as Bangladeshi authorities have thus far refused to accept any other outcome than a swift and unconditional handover of the Accord’s tasks to national inspection entities.
Labour groups call for full remedy in Indonesian labour dispute involving adidas and Mizuno
After six years of campaigning, the former union of a notorious adidas and Mizuno supplier in Indonesia felt compelled to agree to a financial settlement after workers were illegally dismissed in 2012 following a strike to demand their legal wages. Mizuno and adidas were major buyers from the factory unit of PT Panarub Industry. Clean Clothes Campaign calls the amount paid by the Panarub Group a pittance and supports the workers’ demand to the sportswear brands to ensure full remedy.
Demonstrations at Bangladeshi embassies demand respect for garment workers’ rights
This week labour activists and trade unionists around the world are expressing their solidarity with garment workers in Bangladesh through demonstrations in front of Bangladeshi embassies and consulates in cities around the world. Through this week of global solidarity action, activists, unionists and consumers are calling for living wages, safe factories, and a halt to repression against garment workers in Bangladesh. Global concern for garment workers’ rights is mounting after the violent responses to recent wage-related protests, in addition to the protracted court proceedings around the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which threaten essential progress in the field of factory safety.
Repression of worker protests in Bangladesh shows the government’s lack of respect for essential freedoms
Thousands of workers in Bangladesh have taken the streets in protest since the recent implementation of the wage revision in the garment sector. When police in Dhaka started firing rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd, one worker was killed and many others were injured.