In the new report titled ‘Climbing the Ladder: Supervisory Skill Building Programme’, three-years of data collection has concluded that supervisory skills trainings are a successful way to reduce violence and harassment in the workplace over time.

As a main finding, training female and male supervisors in garment factories led to a reduction in violence and harassment as found in the participating factories. Female workers reported not only being better able to stand up for their rights, but also improved job satisfaction and factory functioning due to the improved morale on the work floor.

Specifically in India, 60-70% of garment workers are still women. Men inhabit almost all supervisory roles. In an effort to address this inequality, the FWF Supervisory Skills Training was given in 18 garment factories in South India during 2014 to 2017. Women were given an educational opportunity to gain confidence and move into supervisory roles. All participants, men and women alike, were educated to identify situations of violence and harassment in their workplaces.

 To read more about the significant results of this training programme, see our report here.

Fair Wear Foundation, Mondiaal FNV and CNV Internationaal are on a joint mission to Indonesia. All three organisations are active in this country where the manufacturing sector generates around a fifth of the country’s GDP.

The three organisations that together form the Strategic Partnership for Garment Supply Chain Transformation with the Dutch ministry of Foreign Affairs, are spending a week in Indonesia.

Women’s Post
The first stop was Jakarta. FWF Executive Director Alexander Kohnstamm, Mondiaal FNV Director Karen Brouwer and her colleague Marijn Peperkamp visited the KBN industrial zone, the first gender-based violence free zone in Indonesia that was established after a long struggle by local unions.

The Women’s Post is part of the GBV free zone. No less than 50 volunteers monitor the post on a daily basis. Female workers can complain here about sexual harassment in their working environments as over 50% of female garment workers in Indonesia have experienced sexual harassment, yet less than 5% of the cases have been reported.

ILO convention
As their mission continued in Jakarta, the Dutch delegation attended a joint seminar on combating sexual violence and gender discrimination in the world of work. FNV called upon the 100+ enthusiastic women at the seminar to put pressure on employers to get their support for a new ILO convention by saying, ‘Your actions are important. We will support you!’

In reflection, the trio shared their surprise about how open sensitive issues were discussed, such as the position of the LGBT community. Alexander Kohnstamm applauded the bravery of members of these communities in saying, ‘It takes great courage to stand on that platform and speak out!’

Vulnerable groups
Roel Rotshuizen, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of CNV Internationaal, was also present at the seminar. He emphasised that ‘it is important to involve men too in the fight against sexual harassment on the work floor’.

Sexual harassment most commonly affects vulnerable groups, such as domestic workers, female workers and folks of the LGBT community. In May 2019, the ILO will discuss a new convention to combat discrimination and sexual violence in the work place as over 55% of women in the Indonesian garment sector have experienced sexual harassment of some sort.

–> FWF & violence prevention
Gender equality and practical violence prevention is central to Fair Wear Foundation’s work. FWF has a strong commitment to work with all relevant stakeholders to end violence against women and men in the garment sector. We have implemented innovative violence-prevention programmes in garment-producing countries around the world. Read more on FWF’s Gender Portal.

FWF is proud to introduce its new Labour Minute Calculator for Bangladesh. The Calculator enables suppliers and buyers to determine the cost of one minute of labour in a factory.

Bangladesh recently approved a 51-percent increase (for Grade 7) in the statutory minimum wage. With the higher cost of labour comes the responsibility for brands to revisit their pricing levels. The Labour Minute Calculator enables suppliers and buyers to determine the cost of one minute of labour in a factory and makes components such as bonuses and insurance visible.

The new FWF tool offers enough flexibility to accommodate for exchange rate fluctuations and real overtime hours.

Higher costs
With the Calculator, brands and factories can identify the increase in the manufacturing price of garments required to cover the higher costs of labour due to the minimum wage rise.

The Labour Minute Calculator complements FWF’s country-specific ‘Wage Calculation sheets’, launched in Beta version earlier this year. While FWF’s new tool offers real functionality for factories seeking to adhere to legal requirements and/or living wage commitments, the Wage Calculation sheets help calculate wage increases on a worker-by-workers basis and can also be used to verify that workers receive wage increases.

Feedback!
The new FWF tool for Bangladesh was launched to coincide with the minimum wage increase in Bangladesh, but FWF intends to make the Labour Minute Calculator tool available for other production countries in the future. Moreover, the tool will be expanded to allow for the calculation of a factory’s labour minute cost based on ‘a’ living wage benchmark.

To create the best tools, we welcome feedback from stakeholders, brands and factories to make sure these instruments are as relevant as possible.

A new regulatory environment: the UN’s guiding principles on Business & Human Rights
Following the translation of the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, a new set of due diligence guidelines are in place, which define due diligence as ‘the process through which enterprises can identify, prevent, mitigate, and account for how they address their actual and potential adverse impacts’ in their sourcing practices.

The OECD has provided some guidance on how such principles translate in the area of wage compliance, stating that this should include both wage compliance with national laws and ensure that wages satisfy the basic needs of workers and their families. For manufacturers, wage compliance also means covering those non-mandatory elements, which require them to retain, incentivise and reward their workforce.

Brand Performance Checks
Through our annual Brand Performance Checks, FWF assesses whether our member brands are exercising proper due diligence in their price negotiations with their vendors regarding wage compliance. However, it has become clear that brands require the cooperation of factories to perform due diligence, as buyers often do not have a full picture of their supplier’s labour costs.

Research has also found that when minimum wages increase, many garment companies do not increase their prices enough to absorb all the additional costs of production. This is why, in anticipation of the 2018 minimum wage rises in Myanmar and Bangladesh, we at FWF began researching with suppliers how to provide assistance with the development of a Costing Calculator tool that brands and factories can all use.

–> Read more about this topic in the FWF Labour Minute Costing publication and the new FWF report: Using Due Diligence in Labour Costing to meet wage compliance

FWF brands Haglöfs and OSC have won this year’s FWF Inspiration Award!

The outdoor brands won the award for jointly remediating a complaint in China together with four non-FWF brands. The submission shows that collaboration drives change. The brands said that it’s important to have large brands on board to increase leverage. ‘We worked across big and small companies and across time zones and within a short period of time’ explained Haglöfs’ Eva Mullins on stage. ‘Let’s fight the fight together!’

The complaint involved unauthorised subcontracting up to ten different subcontractors, payment issues and excessive overtime. The brands shared that workers have already benefited from the joint approach. ‘Overtime has been reduced to the legal amounts, and everyone knows now how to read their pay slips’, said Mullins.

The Times they are a Changin’
Every year, during the FWF Annual Conference, an award is presented to the FWF member company which demonstrates an Inspirational Practice: something they’ve been doing to improve labour conditions that is newer, smarter, more effective and simply inspirational.

Over 200 people from around the globe attended the FWF Annual Conference on Tuesday. Representatives of FWF member brands, garment industry stakeholders, media and industry influencers came together at De Hallen Studio’s in Amsterdam.
This year’s conference theme was ‘The Times they are a Changin’, a clear call for action. FWF believes that it is time for a true revolution in the garment industry and change should start today.

Now is the moment
Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Netherlands, opened the conference. She applauded FWF for taking leadership and commended the collective power in the room. She referred to Universal Children’ Day and FWF’s theme of the day. ‘We have failed the 150 million children that are currently working. We have a shared responsibility to fix this. Now is the moment.’

Founder of People Tree, Safia Minney, also referred in her keynote speech to FWF’s theme: ‘We are running out of time, we have to make a huge shift in the next 2-3 years’, she said. Safia gave examples of how People Tree builds the bridge between the supply chain and consumers, using celebrities and influencers, and telling the real story of the products they produce. She also touched on the need for governments to enforce laws to create a level playing field.

Real FAIR WEAR
The conference also featured a CEO panel. CEOs from within and outside the garment sector reflected on what is holding us back from creating real FAIR WEAR and shared their vision on a sustainable fair garment industry. ‘Consumers are hungry for information’ said CEO Tony Tonnaer of Kings of Indigo. ‘We need to tap into this to create awareness. And brands need to be completely transparent, even if you aren’t perfect, you need to be open about everything.’

Collaboration was not only a key feature of the winning pitch for the Inspiration Award. It was also extensively discussed during the CEO panel: ‘If you’re a small brand and only have 5% share of a factory’s production, you can’t achieve that much. So we need to work together with other brands to scale up our collective impact,’ said Christian Schneidermeier from German outdoor brand ORTOVOX.

Weekend
Ortovox was also nominated for FWF’s Annual Award Show, one of the conference highlights. The German outdoor brand got nominated for breaking the six-day working week norm in Asia, giving the weekend back to their workers. They did this in close cooperation with a factory manager.
The other brand nominated was German outdoor brand Vaude for developing and implementing a consistent monitoring system throughout their whole supply chain.

FWF’s Annual Conference 2018 has started. Together with over 200 people from around the globe, FWF will reflect on this year’s theme: The Times they are a Changin’.

The conference on 20 November serves as a call to action: it’s time for a true revolution in the garment industry, and change should start today. The good news is that anyone can join, through our livestream.

https://youtu.be/Twfrrrbq8CY

In De Hallen Studio’s FWF has brought together representatives of member brands, garment industry stakeholders, media and industry influencers, and members of FWF’s staff, Committee of Experts and Board of Directors.

Dutch minister Sigrid Kaag will deliver the opening speech and key note speaker Safia Minney will talk about creating a true fashion revolution. CEOs from within and outside the garment sector will jointly reflect on what is holding us back from creating real FAIR WEAR and share their vision on a sustainable fair garment industry.

The Annual Conference will wrap up with the FWF’s Annual Award Show, where we will present the 2018 FWF Inspiration Award. Stay tuned on Twitter (#FWF18) and Facebook to follow the action and find out who wins this year’s Inspiration Award!

Fair Wear Foundation and the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles are joining forces to promote the payment of living wages and fair working conditions in the garment industry. Both initiatives signed an agreement on Wednesday in Berlin.

The Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (‘Textilbündnis’) and FWF will work together on access to remedy and grievance mechanisms and promoting the payment of living wages. Both initiatives share the view that solving the existing challenges in the sector requires a systematic approach and the cooperation of all relevant stakeholders.

The organisations will conduct joint trainings on responsible business and purchasing practices for garment companies and will offer supplier trainings in productions countries. Members of both initiatives shall benefit from mutual exchange of knowledge and coordination of supporting activities.

Jürgen Janssen, Head of the Textiles Partnership Secretariat said he hopes to ‘achieve greater leverage’ by cooperating with Fair Wear Foundation. FWF director Alexander Kohnstamm adds: ‘Transforming working conditions for people in the garment industry is an ambitious goal, and we can’t achieve it alone. By combining our efforts, we can push for unified change.’

The German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development initiated the Textilbündnis in 2014. The partnership consists of companies, business associations, NGOs, trade unions, standards organisations and the Federal German Government. Together, the Partnership members strive to achieve social, ecological and economic improvements in garment supply chains.

 Mark Held, Interim Chair of the FWF Board of Directors, representing FWF at Textilbündnis member day, 30 October 2018.

Fair Wear Foundation is very happy to welcome Katharine Hamnett London as a new member brand!

As a FWF member, Katharine Hamnett London will use its influence to work towards better labour conditions for garment workers – together with the factories that produce their clothes. FWF annually checks how well the brand is doing that.

‘As the whistleblower and long-term fanatic and campaigner about sustainable fashion I look forward to working with FWF whose aims match mine’, says Hamnett about joining Fair Wear Foundation.

‘Choose Life’
Katharine Hamnett is an icon of modern British fashion, but she is also a long-time activist fighting for a better garment industry. Katharine pioneered the much-copied slogan T-shirt – one of the most famous being CHOOSE LIFE, as worn by George Michael. The iconic ‘No more fashion victims’ T-shirt was one of the first eye-opening campaigns to raise awareness about how the fashion industry impacts people’s lives.

The first Brand Performance Check for Katharine Hamnett London will take place following the company’s initial year of membership, and will be published on the Katharine Hamnett page.

We’re looking for a Helpdesk Support Technician to work with our customised system of data management of member companies and production locations.

As the Helpdesk Support Technician, you would be a part of the Impact Team and would be responsible for:

• Maintaining data integrity and quality
• Uploading member-specific data to the system
• Contacting FWF member companies about their data
• Assisting staff and companies with inquiries related to the existing FWF systems, both technical and content related
• Training users of the information system
• Proactively signalling possible issues and any need for improvements of the system

We are looking for someone with the following qualifications and skills:

• Technical or professional education (MBO or HBO) on data or information system management or similar
• Excellent command of written and spoken English
• 2-3 years of similiar work experience
• Ability to work independently
• Experience with data management
• Extensive experience in data handling with Microsoft Excel
• Analytical, proactive attitude, accurate, and result oriented
• Experience with programming languages such as R or Python or similar would be an an advantage.
• Experience with product ownership would be an advantage

The position has a workload of 16-20 hours per week, with flexible working hours, although preferably spread over three working days. Scheduling is negotiable.

The contract will start as soon as possible and will initially be for one year. Please send your CV and cover letter to [email protected] no later than 11 November 2018. We hope to interview applicants in the week starting 19 November.

Please visit www2.fairwear.org for more information about our organisation. For further details about this vacancy, please call Hector Chavez (+31 (0)20 408 4255).

Recruitment agencies are asked to refrain from approaching Fair Wear Foundation about this or any other vacancy.

Today in the Netherlands it’s ‘Dag van de Duurzaamheid’ – Day of Sustainability. Here are six top tips from Fair Wear Foundation to help you shop more sustainably for your clothes.

 Educate yourself

Things move fast in the fashion world, it can be hard to keep up. There are many fashion blogs you can read (such as True Fashion Collective website or Inhabitat) and documentaries you can watch to learn more about sustainability. True cost is a must-see documentary, shedding light on the people who make our clothes and the impact the fashion industry is having on our world.

 Check the working conditions

Have a look on the website of your favourite brand to check what they are doing to improve labour conditions for the garment workers who made their clothes. Usually you can find the information under the ‘About’ or ‘Sustainability’ pages. Fair Wear Foundation member brands are open about how their clothes are made and take substantial steps towards making a positive impact in the garment industry. We report about the brands efforts on each brand page on our website. If your favourite brand is not mentioning anything about working conditions (and is not a FWF member), ask them about it! Tweet, email, or call them up!

 Choose eco-friendly materials

The environmental impact of the clothing industry is largely determined by the production of chemicals. Choose natural (and therefore biodegradable) materials such as organic cotton, linen, hemp, Tencel, bamboo and wool. For material information, always check the clothing label, or the information on the product page of the brand’s website.

 Use the FWF Shopping List

While thrift stores and clothing swaps are brilliant ways to expand your wardrobe sustainably, it might be challenging to fill your entire wardrobe in this way. That’s where sustainable brands like FWF member brands come in. They are dedicated to supporting garment workers’ rights to safe, dignified and properly paid employment, and making fashion fair for everyone. Use them to fill the gaps in your wardrobe without sacrificing your principles! View the FWF shopping list here.

 Aim for quality over quantity

It’s much more satisfying to buy one beautiful 150 euro dress you can wear often for years, rather than five cheap dresses that fall apart by the end of the first day. Do as the French do: build a wardrobe of classic staples that will last for years!

 Get thrifty!

If you’re both eco-conscious and budget conscious, used clothes are the best option. Second-hand clothes require no new materials to produce: no extra energy, water, or toxic chemicals are added when they change hands from their previous owner. Also, keeping used clothing out of the waste stream means there’s less need for new landfills. And best of all, used clothes are generally cheaper than new (quality) clothes.