Until mid-last 2023, you received regular newsletters from Aika Fischbeck on behalf of the Civil Society in the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles. The associated project concluded in August 2023, leading to a hiatus in updates. However, a successor project has emerged from a consortium of German civil society organizations – FEMNET, INKOTA-netzwerk, SÜDWIND Institut, and HEJSupport – alongside Bangladeshi organizations BILS and ESDO as well as further project allies BLF, WageIndicator and Mondiaal FNV.

Within the context of our new project, focusing on Worker- and Community based Monitoring in Bangladesh (see more info below), we are reviving the newsletter, albeit on a monthly basis instead of weekly. Additionally, there will be a slight thematic adjustment, as we aim to focus more on the textile sector in Bangladesh. Consequently, we will use the news update to report on developments, progress, labor rights, and other (exciting) news in the textile sector, particularly concerning – but not limited to – Bangladesh.

This newsletter is intended for all who are interested in these topics and wish to support an ambitious, sustainable textile industry while becoming part of this new network. If you have suggestions for specific topics or would like to submit news or information under the "Network & Events" category, please feel free to contact Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein! or Diese E-Mail-Adresse ist vor Spambots geschützt! Zur Anzeige muss JavaScript eingeschaltet sein!.

We hope you enjoy reading!
Your project team

IMPROVED DUE DILIGENCE: By combining Community- and Worker-based Monitoring approaches, this project puts needs and challenges of rights holders’ at its very center, allowing factual evidence to guide actions. The results are being used to address labour rights violations in factories, as well as environmental and health concerns for workers living near textile facilities in Savar, to ultimately improve due diligence of purchasing brands. By building a strong local and international network, actions in Bangladesh are accompanied by lobbying and advocacy in Germany, ensuring a comprehensive approach to improve living and working conditions of garment workers.

STUDIES & REPORTS

• Gender Pay Gaps in Global Supply Chains: The Anker Research Institute released a report examining gender pay disparities in workplaces across Bangladesh, Colombia, Morocco, Thailand, and Turkey. Findings reveal significant variations in pay gaps, ranging from 22% favoring men in Bangladeshi garment factories to slight gaps favoring women in Thai factories.
• Growing Water-Related Risks for Major Fashion Brands: The Planet Tracker Report “Ripple Effects: Quantifying Water Risks in the Apparel Supply Chain” highlights the escalating water-related risks faced by major fashion brands and retailers such as Adidas, Gap, H&M, Inditex, Levi Strauss, Nike, PVH Corp, Ralph Lauren, and VF Corp. With water stress intensifying in key manufacturing regions such as Bangladesh, the report emphasizes the urgent need for effective water risk management strategies. North American brands, in particular, face a notable increase in water stress, according to the analysis. For further information on a range of topics related to water and fashion and educational input visit the Water Playbook for consumers and brands by the NGO DripbyDrip.
• How the fashion industry avoids paying minimum wages in Pakistan: FEMNET and the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in collaboration with National Trade Union Federation (NTUF) and Home-Based Women Worker’s Federation (HBWWF) published the report “No Contracts, no Rights” that exposes alarming labor practices in the Pakistani garment industry, with none of the 350 surveyed workers receiving a living wage, 97% lacking a written employment contract, and 80% not receiving a pay slip. The report also highlights the obligations of companies on issues of living wages under the German supply chain law while noting that companies seem to make increasing efforts to address labour rights violations. 
• Reports and Rankings expose industry performance
  • Fashion Accountability Report: The Fashion Accountability Report 2024 by Remake underscores the fashion industry's failure to address both human and environmental concerns. Employing an intersectional approach, the report evaluates progress on issues pertaining to human rights, environmental sustainability, economics, and politics within fashion supply chains. It reveals that out of the 52 largest fashion brands assessed, none have fully integrated human rights into their corporate governance structures. Only 17% of the assessed brands have made commitments to living wages for workers throughout their supply chains and less than 5% of the brands have comprehensive supply chain transparency practices in place.
  • KnowTheChain Apparel & Footwear Benchmark – Ranking: The 2023 KnowTheChain findings report (PDF) shows that the majority of companies in the apparel and footwear industry continue to demonstrate a reactive approach towards human rights violations, with only 12% of the assessed companies having processes in place to monitor and address labor rights risks. Rather than evidencing robust due diligence practices designed to prevent abuse, companies routinely failed to provide and disclose remedy to those whose rights were infringed – even as the most illustrious of benchmarked brands continued to post remarkable revenue growth.

NEWS

• European Union adopts an EU supply chain law with significant changes

After encountering over a month of delays and obstacles, EU Member States in March 2023 have finally approved the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D). The delays arose as several Member States, most notably Germany, driven by the FDP party, and ultimately France and Italy, opted to withdraw or suspend their support for the legislation, necessitating new negotiations. The approved text (PDF) has undergone several modifications, with a significant reduction in the number of companies covered being among the most noteworthy changes. The law will now apply to companies with 1,000 employees (instead of 500) and a turnover of 450 (instead of 150) million euros. The category of high-risk sectors, which includes the textile industry, has been completely removed. According to estimates by the Initiative Lieferkettengesetz, the total number of EU companies covered by the CS3D will fall from around 16,000 to less than 5,500 as a result of these changes. Approval from the EU Parliament is now required before the text can be formally adopted. Numerous civil society organizations and companies had previously spoken out in favour of the CS3D. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA)'s president had also previously called for “universal” due diligence laws as the increase in manufacturing and factory costs is making it difficult for manufacturers to comply with several types of legislation.

• Deal on EU Regulation to prohibit forced labour products

EU Member States have given their approval to the EU Regulation aimed at prohibiting products made with forced labor from entering the EU market; now the legislation needs the final approval from the Parliament. The Forced Labour Regulation does not expressly impose additional due diligence obligations on businesses in relation to forced and child labour. Instead, it is intended that the Regulation will operate alongside other existing or future due diligence obligations, such as those contained in CS3D. 37 civil society organisations and trade unions from across Europe and beyond called upon EU Member States to back the inter-institutional agreement reached earlier in March, ensuring new rules enter into force without delay.

• Blood tests show high-level EU politicians are polluted by PFAS

Recent blood tests conducted on high-level EU politicians revealed significant contamination by PFAS substances, commonly found in everyday products. Even though the EU has one of the strongest chemicals control systems in the world, the test results show that Europeans are exposed to ‘alarmingly high’ chemical pollution, according to European Environmental Bureau (EEB) and ChemSec who initiated the test. PFAS chemicals are linked to a range of severe health issues, including cancer, infertility, birth defects and immune system disruptions. These findings underscore the urgency for stricter regulations and further research into the risks associated with PFAS exposure. In France, there has been a recent push to ban PFAS in products, following concerns about the presence of the so called "forever chemicals" in various consumer goods.

• France proposes measures towards sustainable fashion

France is taking a stand against ultra-fast fashion by proposing penalties aimed at curbing its harmful effects on the environment and labor conditions in the garment industry. The legislation proposes gradually increasing penalties, reaching up to 10 euros per individual item of clothing by 2030, along with a ban on advertising for such products. It received unanimous approval from all voting lawmakers and will proceed to the senate before potentially becoming law. Vogue business takes a critical look at the move in this article. In another move to address sustainability in the fashion industry, France, along with Sweden and Denmark, has proposed a ban on the export of used clothes within the EU. United Nations trade data shows the EU exported 1.4 million metric tons of used textiles in 2022, more than twice as much as in 2000. The clothes can cause pollution in African countries where items that can't be resold end up in dumps. The proposed ban aims to reduce waste exports and promote circularity in fashion, aligning with broader efforts to mitigate the environmental footprint of textile consumption.

• European retail giants linked to dirty Brazilian cotton

The NGO Earthsight reveals that European retail giants like Zara and H&M use cotton linked to land grabbing, illegal deforestation, violence, human rights violations and corruption in Brazil. All the cotton traced by the NGO is certified as ethical by the world’s largest cotton certification scheme, Better Cotton, which has failed to detect the illegalities. These revelations raise concerns about the environmental and social impacts of fast fashion and the need for greater transparency and accountability in the industry.

PRODUCTION COUNTRIES

• Bangladesh:

• Minimum wage revision, persecution and arrest of workers and trade unionists: The year 2023 has cruelly revealed the severe repression suffered by workers and trade unionists in Bangladesh. Four people were killed in protests for a new minimum wage, activists were threatened, and civil society was increasingly restricted. Factories started blacklisting workers who were clearly campaigning for higher wages. At the same time, trade unionists were - and still are - persecuted and threatened. Many of the detainees were released on bail after the parliamentary elections on January 7, but some are still in prison. Unfortunately, many brands remained silent in the face of developments and did not condemn the violence against workers and the repression of trade unions in the face of wage negotiations. FEMNET has summarized the developments of recent months in an article explaining what the new minimum wage of just €105 means for workers.
• The new minimum wage in Bangladesh is not enough to live on: IndustriAll expresses concerns regarding the revised minimum wages in Bangladesh, deemed inadequate: “We strongly denounce the proposed wage hike as it is not sufficient to meet the daily needs of workers and their families. It’s terrible that the wage board has overlooked workers’ demand of living wages, both in RMG as well as textile sector”, summarizes Kutubuddin Ahmed, IndustriALL Bangladesh Council’s general secretary. ETI also expressed concern about the number of arrests, ongoing detentions, pending court cases, and actions taken against workers in Bangladesh following the run up to the national elections and the minimum wage revision. The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) demands brands to compel their Bangladeshi suppliers to drop the various baseless criminal charges filed against workers and labour leaders during the 2023 protests calling for a higher minimum wage.
• Bangladesh RMG Scrutinized at US Hearing: Bangladesh's Ready-Made Garment (RMG) sector faced scrutiny at a US hearing regarding labor rights, according to The Business Standard. The hearing, addressing apparel imports from five countries, including Bangladesh, underscores concerns about labor conditions and worker rights violations within the industry. The discussion reflects international attention on Bangladesh's RMG sector and calls for improvements in labor standards and practices.

• Bangladesh, Pakistan: International Accord renewed

In November 2023, the International Accord, a legally binding agreement on health and safety in the textile and clothing industry, was extended for a further three years, ensuring that efforts to improve health and safety in supply chains will continue in the future. The International Accord encompasses safety programs in Pakistan and Bangladesh. In mid-April 2024, the International Accord had 200 signatories, the Bangladesh Accord 170 and the Pakistan Accord, which has been in existence since January 2023, 117 signatories. Regular updates on the International Accord can be found here.

NETWORK & EVENTS

• Online Courses offering insights into lifecycle of textiles and chemicals

HEJSupport offers an online course on sustainable textiles, covering the lifecycle of textiles and their impact on the environment, health, and human rights. The course provides an overview of various materials, including natural and synthetic fibers, as well as new and recycled materials. Aimed primarily at beginners and those interested in textiles, the course is available in English, German, and Russian. Additional online courses offered by HEJSupport are also available on their platform, catering to various languages and topics.

• Progressive online course module for sustainability professionals

The online course "Navigating the German Supply Chain Act - Sustainability and Due Diligence in the Consumer Goods Industry" by FEMNET offers professionals in sustainability an engaging training opportunity. Through interactive group discussions, the exchange of practical experiences, and working on case studies, participants gradually expand their knowledge and skills in sustainability and due diligence in compliance with the German Supply Chain Act. The program, divided into 5 modules and held in German, offers a dynamic learning experience, allowing participants to actively learn, reflect, and apply their knowledge in practice. The first module starts on April 17^th 2024. All modules can also be booked individually.

Kind regards on behalf of the whole project team

Luise Tegeler
Projektleitung Sorgfaltspflichten in Lieferketten
Project Lead Due Diligence in Supply Chains