worker rights news and archive

PayUp Fashion initiative launches to secure industry’s future

In March of this year, US-based NGO Remake together with partnering organisation and labour activist and founder of the AWAJ Foundation, Nazma Akter, launched the#PayUp initiativethat urges international brands and retailers to honour their commitments and pay suppliers for in-production orders at the earliest. Since then, the movement has gone...

22 Sep 2020

Fashion

Boohoo provides more details on independent review

Boohoo has announced the terms of reference for the independent review it’s launching to investigate allegations of poor working conditions at its suppliers’ factories in Leicester will begin in September. Media reports in July claimed that workers at factories in Leicester that make clothing for Boohoo were paid just 3.50 pounds per hour and...

28 Jul 2020

Video

Video: Who made your face mask?

Last week reports surfaced about several Chinese companies using Uighur labor through a government program aimed at producing personal protective equipment, including face masks. The New York Times took it upon themselves to see whether or not they could achieve visual proof of these claims by tracking where masks imported into the USA are from...

27 Jul 2020

Fashion

Coalition puts pressure on fashion to end forced labour

An international coalition called on fashion and garment giants Thursday to break supply chains from the Xinjiang region of China and cut ties with those implicated in Uighur forced labor within the next year. The Coalition to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region, an international group of rights, civil society and trade organizations, warned...

24 Jul 2020

Fashion

Leading UK fashion retailers call for more protection for garment workers

Leading UK fashion retailers including Marks & Spencer, Joules, Asos, New Look and Next have joined MPs, investors and NGOs in writing a joint letter to home secretary Priti Patel calling for greater protection for garment factory workers. The joint letter, coordinated by the British Retail Consortium (BRC), proposes the government introduces...

20 Jul 2020

Business

Quiz suspends supplier following reports of living wage breach

Quiz has suspended a supplier over allegations of non-compliance with the National Living Wage requirement. The British fashion retailer said it was investigating reports that workers at one of its suppliers' factories in the Leicester region had been paid just 3 pounds an hour to make clothing for the company. “Quiz is extremely concerned by...

13 Jul 2020

Business

Sourcing: #PayUp initiative urges fashion brands and retailers to act now, not in 60 days

While the coronavirus outbreak has wreaked havoc in economies in the western world and lives certainly have been disrupted, few actually fear for their lives due to job losses. Undoubtedly, looking at the fashion industry, especially small- and medium-size labels, brands and retailers will have a hard time, maybe will even have to give up, but...

7 Apr 2020

Business IN DEPTH

Abandoned? The impact of Covid-19 on factories and garment workers

There are few jobs that are as unpredictable and dangerous as that of a garment worker. When things are going well and orders come in, it means time pressure, piecework, verbal and physical abuse at the workplace and still no living wage. When things are not going well, it means cancelled orders leading to job loss, no severance package, no...

6 Apr 2020

Business IN-DEPTH

Will H&M fulfill its pledge by paying a fair, living wage by 2018?

London - It has been a little more than four years since Swedish fashion retailer H&M promised to pay all garment workers in its supply chain a'fair living wage'by 2018 - but will the company manage to fulfill this goal? With the start of 2018 just around the corner, Clean Clothes Campaign and its global partners are urging H&M to step forward...

27 Nov 2017

Fashion

Gap and H&M fail to uphold human rights in supplier factories

London - Although the plight and needs of the millions of garment workers serving in the fashion industry’s supply chain remain well documented, it seems as if concrete changes concerning labor and human rights have yet to occur. In spite of fast fashion retailers Gap and H&M social and sustainable commitments concerning workers rights, wages,...

27 May 2016