Apparel Industry Action and Evidence to Enhance Factory Workers’ Conditions and Pay

Over the past decade major brands buying apparel from a number of countries across Asia have responded to the call to enhance factory workers’ pay and conditions. The main impetus was the Rana Plaza tragedy in 2013. A number of initiatives have compelled brands to change their policies and practices. A key example of this is Oxfam’s What She Makes campaign. As an outcome, brands have committed to growing transparency, commitment to paying a living wage, separating labour costs, publishing plans, and paying a living a wage. To date, brands have been self-declaring their action on these commitments. Coupled with this is the Action, Collaboration, and Transformation (ACT) commitments needing to the realised by the end of 2023.
However, there are persistent questions as to how brands have actioned their commitments, as per the changes to their practices, and evidence to support these.
Aim
We research the alignment between brands’ commitments and actions to enhance apparel factory workers conditions and pay. In particular, in this research we aim to explore
•brands’ full transparency of their supplier lists
•brands’ action on their ACT commitments (except Commitment 5, Exit strategies)
•brands’ evidence to demonstrate achievement on ACT commitments (except Commitment 5, Exit strategies)