Community efforts seen as key to tackling UK fashion worker abuses
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation A government taskforce and proposed factory licensing scheme are unlikely to prevent labour abuses in Britain’s garment industry without the involvement of trade unions and community groups to help workers, several advocates in the city of Leicester said. The textile sector in Leicester, central England, has been in the spotlight this […]
Garment industry: As fashion sales fall globally, big brands leave Asia’s garment workers in limbo
KIERAN GUILBERT, NAIMUL KARIM and ANURADHA NAGARAJ, of Thomson Reuters Foundation, report…
Top fashion brands found making little progress in transparency index
London, UKThomson Reuters Foundation Max Mara, Pepe Jeans and Tom Ford are among the least transparent fashion brands when it comes to providing information about their supply chains, according to an index published on Tuesday that found little progress in the industry. The annual index by advocacy group Fashion Revolution – now in its fifth […]
Job cut fears as fashion brands slash orders in Bangladesh with coronavirus
Dhaka, BangladeshThomson Reuters Foundation Factory workers in Bangladesh could go hungry as global fashion brands have cancelled or delayed orders worth $US138 million due to coronavirus, manufacturers said on Thursday. More than 100 Bangladeshi factories have already lost orders, manufacturers said, as retail sales plummeted globally and giants like Zara owner Inditex and H&M temporarily […]
Big clothes brands found to fall short of own fair wage promises
LondonThomson Reuters Foundation The world’s top clothing brands are failing to fulfil their own promises to pay workers a fair living wage that covers basic family needs, academics and activists said on Thursday. Most major garment companies lack plans for calculating – let alone achieving – a living wage in their global supply chains, despite […]
ETHICAL FASHION: PRESSURE ON AUSTRALIAN COMPANIES SEEING INDUSTRY IMPROVEMENTS BUT STILL “A DISTANCE TO GO” REPORT FINDS
DAVID ADAMS reports on the findings of the seventh annual Ethical Fashion Report from Baptist World Aid Australia…
Bangladesh fashion workers at risk with ‘shocking’ reform delays
Thomson Reuters Foundation The safety of workers making clothing for global brands like Adidas and H&M could be at risk if Bangladesh’s Supreme Court moves on Sunday to shut down a factory inspection mechanism set up by European fashion labels, campaigners said on Tuesday. The government has shown “a shocking level of unreadiness” to take […]
Global database maps fashion factories to crack down on slavery
LondonThomson Reuters Foundation A fashion data organisation aims to crack down on slavery and worker abuse by mapping every clothing and footwear factory in the world, with a free, open-source tool launched on Thursday. The Open Apparel Registry seeks to untangle often opaque supply chains by identifying every factory by name and address, increasing transparency […]
Clothes sold in Australia made by workers surviving on “poverty wages” in Bangladesh and Vietnam, according to new Oxfam research
An Oxfam investigation has found widespread payment of “poverty wages” among garment industry workers in Bangladesh with nine out of 10 workers interviewed there saying they were forced to regularly skip meals and eat inadequately or go into debt as a result. The research, presented in a report, Made in Poverty, released in Australia on […]
FUTURE STYLES: COULD VIRTUAL CLOTHES REDUCE THE DAMAGE OF FAST FASHION?
SONIA ELKS, writing for Thomson Reuters Foundation, explores how technology is helping the fashion industry to become more sustainable…