Our Demands
To Brands
Brands need to do more to change the power dynamic in the garment industry. Workers should not have to fight for basic human rights in 2020. It’s time to demand change.

Our wage demands

Pay a living wage

We want brands to pay more for orders. Suppliers will only be able to pay living wages when they are able to bargain for prices that can cover labour costs.

Brands need to commit to paying a living wage contribution on every order they place, sufficient to close the wage gap for all workers in their supply chain by 31 December 2022.

Using Living wage Benchmarks

If brands are going to pay living wages to all workers across their supply chain they need to know how much labour should cost. There are many tools to help brands do so.

Brands need to commit to using transparent and robust living wage benchmarks.

Pay the women who make our clothes

Brands need to do more to reduce gender inequality in the garment supply chain. Women are routinely hired in roles that pay less than their male counter parts which is detrimental to their health and safety.

Brands need to commit to reducing the gender pay gap in their supply chain by at least 30% by 31 December 2022.

Covid-19 - Pay UP!

When covid-19 shook the world it left the garment industry in ruins. Millions of workers have been without full pay for months. Many of them were already waiting on unpaid wages from before the pandemic. For the vast majority of workers, receiving anything less than their full pay means they cannot afford to buy food.

Brands need to publicly commit to a wage guarantee for all workers in their supply chain. Ensure and enable that all workers who were employed at the onset of the Covid-19 crisis receive their full salaries or, in the case of factory closure, receive severance pay. Read more

Our transparency demands

A transparent supply chain

We want all brands to commit to a completely transparent supply chain by signing the Transparency pledge. The Transparency Pledge sets a floor for what information, as a minimum, garment companies should disclose to the outside world about the factories they are producing in. The standard was launched in 2017 by a coalition of nine trade unions and labour rights organizations and has been further elaborated on in two reports in 2017 and 2019.

Brands that haven’t already need to sign the Transparency Pledge as soon as possible.

Readable data on women, migrants and unions

Not only do brands need to be collecting specific data on the working conditions in their supply chain, they also need to release this data in a format that activists and unions can work with. We want to know where women and migrants work in the supply chain and whether the people who make our clothes are able to stand up for themselves.

Brands must disclose data using machine readable supplier lists, including gender breakdown of roles in each factory, migrant workers as share of workforce in each factory, and presence of unions or worker committees in each factory.

Wages at the bottom of the supply chain

We want to know what the lowest earning workers in the supply chain earn for a full working week. This is not something brands disclose or even check. This needs to change.

Brands must disclose data on the lowest wage level paid by each supplier in each production country, for a full working week, excluding overtime, benefits and bonuses.
 
Our Demands
To policymakers
It’s not just brands that are responsible for ensuring workers in the garment industry are treated fairly and equally. Governments play a vital role in creating a level playing field for all parties involved.

Our wage demands

We call for minimum wages in production countries to be fixed in accordance with reliable international living wage standards and for transparent and robust benchmarks to be included in policies and agreements.
We call for the EU to ensure that minimum wages for workers in the EU are fair and guarantee a decent living, and are fixed in accordance with reliable international living wage standards, and enable access to adequate social protection regardless of employment relationships and reduce social exclusion and inequalities.

Our transparency demands

We call for the EU to require supply-chain disclosure from, at least, companies in high-risk sectors where violations are rife. The supplier list should also include machine readable information on all production units and processing facilities, as well as the name, address, parent company of the site business, type of products made and number of workers at each site.
We call for mandatory disclosure of data on lowest wage level paid by each supplier of each production country, excluding benefits and bonuses and by gender, migrant workers and employment status with awareness of risks and rights all the way down the supply chain.
We call to advance human rights due diligence legislation at EU level to put in place an obligation on companies to respect human rights in their operations and supply-chains, including transparency on the due diligence process, on the supply-chain and on wages paid in the supply chain, with awareness of risks and rights all the way down the supply chain, and according to the ‘leave no-one behind’-principle.
We call to set in place an information system for companies to report and disclose adequate and transparent information on factory-level and on product-level. Access to this information system should be free, unlimited and according to established Open Data standards.
We call for increased transparency at product level to empower citizens: expand the type of information on labeling of textile to include information on the manufacturing process and life cycle.

See our website for more information on these demands.