Transaction Search Form: please type in any of the fields below.
Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 1:15 am
Time: 1:15 am
Results for retail industry
1 results foundAuthor: KnowTheChain Title: Apparel and Footwear Benchmark Findings Report: How are 20 of the largest companies addressing forced labor in their supply chains? Summary: According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), an estimated 21 million people are victims of forced labor around the world. As defined by the ILO, forced labor refers to "situations in which persons are coerced to work through the use of violence or intimidation, or by subtler means such as accumulated debt, retention of identity papers or threats of denunciation to immigration authorities." The apparel & footwear industry is an at-risk sector. Forced labor occurs both in the production of raw materials and during the manufacturing stages of apparel and footwear companies' supply chains, especially at lower tier suppliers and in home-based or informal manufacturing. Most nations in the world participate to some degree in the textile and apparel sector. And, the textiles, clothing, and footwear industry is a rapidly growing field of employment: While in 2000 the global garment industry employed about 20 million workers, this number has at least tripled to 60-75 million workers in 2014, three quarters of whom are women. Following incidents of child labor and reports about sweatshop conditions since the 1990s, companies have taken action, and associations such as the Ethical Trading Initiative, the Fair Labor Association, and the Better Work Initiative, a partnership between the ILO and the International Finance Corporation, have helped companies to work towards improving conditions in apparel supply chains. Today, companies acknowledge responsibility for working conditions in their supply chains, and traceability and transparency are higher than in other sectors. The majority of large apparel and footwear companies have in place supplier monitoring systems, and, through initiatives such as ACT (Action, Collaboration, Transformation), apparel brands, retailers, manufacturers, and trade unions are collaborating to implement living wages. Why does forced labor in the sector persist? While progress has been made, forced labor persists in the sector. The tragic collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh has proven that auditing systems can easily fall short: two factories in the building had been audited for social compliance and several brands were unaware that their clothes were being made there. Where audits are announced, some employers ask undocumented workers or child workers to hide. In other instances, the work is subcontracted, and poor working conditions move to a deeper, less visible part of the supply chain.4 "Fast fashion" models can exacerbate the risk of forced labor, with pressure on lead times and pricing leading suppliers to outsource production. Details: San Francisco: KnowTheChain, 2016. 36p. Source: Internet Resources: Accessed April 6, 2018 at: https://knowthechain.org/wp-content/plugins/ktc-benchmark/app/public/images/benchmark_reports/KTC_A&F_ExternalReport_Final.pdf Year: 2016 Country: International URL: https://knowthechain.org/wp-content/plugins/ktc-benchmark/app/public/images/benchmark_reports/KTC_A&F_ExternalReport_Final.pdf Shelf Number: 149720 Keywords: Consumer ProductsForced LaborHuman Rights AbusesHuman TraffickingMigrant WorkersModern SlaveryRetail IndustrySupply Chains |