bdnews24.com :
German apparel and footwear brands should promote workers’ rights in their global operations by publicly disclosing the factories producing their products, says Human Rights Watch.
The human rights groups is calling for ‘supply chain transparency through public disclosure’ that has countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia in the sights.
“German clothing brands should promote respect for worker rights and safety by making their global supply chains transparent,” said Wenzel Michalski, Germany director at Human Rights Watch. “Adidas, a leading German brand, has been publicly disclosing its supplier list since 2007- demonstrating that transparency is both possible and desirable.”
In a recent report, ‘Work Faster or Get Out: Labor Rights Abuses in Cambodia’s Garment Industry’, Human Rights Watch documented lax Cambodian government enforcement of labour laws and the need for apparel brands to improve their monitoring and compliance.
For the report, Human Rights Watch examined labour practices in factories producing products for Adidas, Armani, Gap, H&M, Joe Fresh and Marks & Spencer among others.
A garment factory in Cambodia’s Phnom Penh. Photo: Reuters A garment factory in Cambodia’s Phnom Penh. Photo: Reuters Many factories in Cambodia repeatedly issued short-term contracts beyond the two-year limit to avoid paying workers maternity and other benefits, and to intimidate and control them.
Workers on short-term contracts who tried to form unions or assert their rights were especially at risk of not having their contracts renewed.
Many apparel brands have not taken adequate steps to end this illegal use of short-term contracts in their Cambodian supplier factories – even where their supplier codes of conduct have clauses limiting their use.
By publicly disclosing and updating the names of suppliers, the garment brands enable public scrutiny of their supply chains, which in turn will help alert brands to poor working conditions and other human rights problems in their supplier factories, Human Rights Watch said.
The lack of transparency was evident following the collapse on April 24, 2013, of the Rana Plaza complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which housed a number of garment factories, killing more than 1,100 workers and injuring thousands more.
Unions and labour rights groups gathered brand labels of the clothes produced in the destroyed factories from the rubble and demanded that those brands contribute to the compensation fund for the victims and support broader reform measures.
However, brands’ lack of supply chain transparency was a key reason why the problems at Rana Plaza were not addressed before the point of catastrophe, says the HRW report.
German apparel and footwear brands should promote workers’ rights in their global operations by publicly disclosing the factories producing their products, says Human Rights Watch.
The human rights groups is calling for ‘supply chain transparency through public disclosure’ that has countries like Bangladesh and Cambodia in the sights.
“German clothing brands should promote respect for worker rights and safety by making their global supply chains transparent,” said Wenzel Michalski, Germany director at Human Rights Watch. “Adidas, a leading German brand, has been publicly disclosing its supplier list since 2007- demonstrating that transparency is both possible and desirable.”
In a recent report, ‘Work Faster or Get Out: Labor Rights Abuses in Cambodia’s Garment Industry’, Human Rights Watch documented lax Cambodian government enforcement of labour laws and the need for apparel brands to improve their monitoring and compliance.
For the report, Human Rights Watch examined labour practices in factories producing products for Adidas, Armani, Gap, H&M, Joe Fresh and Marks & Spencer among others.
A garment factory in Cambodia’s Phnom Penh. Photo: Reuters A garment factory in Cambodia’s Phnom Penh. Photo: Reuters Many factories in Cambodia repeatedly issued short-term contracts beyond the two-year limit to avoid paying workers maternity and other benefits, and to intimidate and control them.
Workers on short-term contracts who tried to form unions or assert their rights were especially at risk of not having their contracts renewed.
Many apparel brands have not taken adequate steps to end this illegal use of short-term contracts in their Cambodian supplier factories – even where their supplier codes of conduct have clauses limiting their use.
By publicly disclosing and updating the names of suppliers, the garment brands enable public scrutiny of their supply chains, which in turn will help alert brands to poor working conditions and other human rights problems in their supplier factories, Human Rights Watch said.
The lack of transparency was evident following the collapse on April 24, 2013, of the Rana Plaza complex in Dhaka, Bangladesh, which housed a number of garment factories, killing more than 1,100 workers and injuring thousands more.
Unions and labour rights groups gathered brand labels of the clothes produced in the destroyed factories from the rubble and demanded that those brands contribute to the compensation fund for the victims and support broader reform measures.
However, brands’ lack of supply chain transparency was a key reason why the problems at Rana Plaza were not addressed before the point of catastrophe, says the HRW report.
