© SAVE
Globally, supply chains are collapsing due to the coronavirus pandemic. In the face of factory closures, wage losses, rising food prices and strict curfews, the situation for precariously employed textile workers is becoming increasingly severe. FEMNET has set up an emergency fund to protect themselves and their families and ensure their existence. In India, FEMNET's partner organizations have started distributing food.
Food distribution to migrant workers on 31 March 2020. © SAVE
With the outbreak of the corona crisis, the government of Tamil Nadu imposed a curfew from 23 March to around 14 April 2020. Suddenly there were no more trains or intercity buses. Thousands of migrant workers are stuck. Some migrant workers made their way home on foot - hoping to find a bus along the way - because when all factories are closed, they no longer receive a wage and have to starve.
© Daria Nipot - Depositphotos.com
Bonn / Berlin. The COVID-19 crisis affects all actors in the textile supply chain. However, it hits the weakest particularly hard. Fashion brands and retail companies have suffered a blatant loss of sales due to the stagnation of public life in this country. However, the economic pressure is passed on: Orders to supplier companies in Bangladesh or Cambodia are cancelled and goods that have already been completed are no longer accepted or paid for. The suppliers therefore dismiss the already poorly paid workers or close them completely. For workers, the growing risk of COVID-19 infection on the ground in the event of poor health care is combined with extreme economic hardship due to a lack of wages.
© CCC
Globally, the corona virus is spreading. Indiscriminately each of us can hit it - regardless of gender, skin color and nationality. What does this mean for global supply chains and our global responsibility for unprotected people?
© FEMNET
Procurement procedures contain their pitfalls. The inclusion of minimum social and environmental standards often does not make things easier. But even with little experience, a fair award is feasible. Together with lawyer André Siedenberg, FEMNET has developed a digital award tool: an online decision-making aid for all those who want to procure fairer.
© City of Bonn Barbara Frommann
More and more municipalities are making their way to get fairer. However, the concrete implementation is not always so simple. FEMNET has advised smaller municipalities on fair purchasing practices. Now let's take the “lessons learnt“ in one manual together: Our examples show that there are ways to achieve something - even if the staffing level is thin, the political backing is (still) lacking or there are legal uncertainties.
© FEMNET
The district of Fürth dares to: Since 2016, its member municipalities have been working together to make public purchases more socially equitable step by step. They reinforce each other, they coordinate strategies and they share procurement data. In the district of Fürth, many positive aspects intertwine: Active and dedicated Fairtrade Town steering groups that don't let up. The insight that fair procurement can be easier than thought. And the necessary political backing to make fair procurement also possible ‘from above’.
Press release of the Supply Chain Act initiative, an alliance of which FEMNET is a member
Berlin. Time and again, German companies are involved in human rights violations and environmental destruction along their supply chains. In order to prevent this, Federal Development Minister Müller and Federal Labour Minister Heil had already promised in December to publish key points for a supply chain law. According to the editorial network Germany (RND), the Federal Chancellery has prevented the publication of the key points planned for today. The Supply Chain Act initiative calls on the federal government to fulfil its obligations under the coalition agreement and finally to advance the legislative process for a supply chain law.
Workers' organisation protests against sexual harassment and violence in the workplace on 7 February 2020 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. © Taslima Akter
Bonn, Germany and Dhaka, Bangladesh, 8 March 2020. From economic exploitation to domestic violence, from sexual harassment by supervisors and prerogatives to rape in the workplace, violence and harassment are brutal everyday life for many women in Bangladesh. States and companies are not using their options to protect women from assault. FEMNET and its partner organisations call for the immediate ratification and effective implementation of international conventions for the protection of women in global supply chains.
© FEMNET
Important progress has been made by the multi-stakeholder initiative Tamil Nadu (MSI-TN) over the last 1.5 years – this was clearly visible at the conference on 6 February 2020, which was attended by around 140 people.
© BCWS
Your demands are clear: Drop the charges! No blacklists! Stop the dismantling of trade unions! Although the suppression of wage protests in Bangladesh has already been a year, many of the affected workers are still waiting for justice.
© FEMNET
Extremely low wages, fixed-term contracts and the suppression of trade unions: Occupational clothing is intended to protect employees, but in manufacturing the working conditions are as precarious as in the fashion industry. Research commissioned by FEMNET in Indian and Tunisian factories shows: European brands accept that national labour laws and international core labour standards are trampled on in their suppliers.
