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Mit einem Materialheft nimmt die Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland (EKD) die Produktionsbedingungen in der Textilindustrie in den Blick. Ob in Bangladesch, Indien, Indonesien oder Osteuropa: die Einschränkung oder Verletzung von Menschenrechten, von Arbeits- und Sozialgesetzen ist an der Tagesordnung.

Das Materialheft bietet Hintergrundinformationen zu Produktionsstätten von Textilien sowie Interviews mit Näherinnen und Nähern, Informationen zum bestehenden internationalen Rechtsrahmen und dazu, wie und wo Käufer und VerbraucherInnen sich engagieren können. Es informiert über Bündnisse zur Verbesserung der Arbeitssituation von Näherinnen und Nähern, zur Unternehmensverantwortung und welche Projekte Unterstützung geben, damit Menschen ihre Rechte kennen und einfordern können. Darüber hinaus zeigt das Heft, wie das Thema Modeproduktion inzwischen kritisch wahrgenommen wird: in Ausstellungen, Dokumentationen, Film und Literatur.

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The prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) is high (54%) in Bangladesh. Moreover, female garment workers report higher rates of IPV and are also vulnerable to workplace violence (WPV). Experience of violence puts women at increased risk of developing depressive symptoms, which are related with low self-esteem, lower life satisfaction and lower productivity. To our knowledge, there has been no previous research on depression among female garment workers and its connections to IPV and WPV in Bangladesh. This paper aims to address this gap by studying the relationship of IPV, WPV and depression among female garment workers.

This study shows the pathways through which experience of IPV and WPV lead to development of depressive symptoms among female garment workers. The link between women’s ability to mobilize resources with self-esteem and work-related stress indicates the need for socio-economic empowerment of women and may suggest that combined intervention to address IPV and women’s empowerment could be successful in dealing with WPV and mental health. 

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Die Deutschen bestellen immer mehr im Netz – und schicken immer häufiger Pakete zurück. Kaum jemand weiß allerdings, dass ein großer Teil der Retouren nicht wiederverkauft wird, sondern im Müll landet. Nur Einer von Zehn ist sich dieser Verschwendung bewusst, zeigt die Greenpeace-Umfrage zum Online-Kaufverhalten 2018.

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This paper investigates how Social Accountability International (SAI) – a social certification organisation for factories and organisations, and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) – an alliance of companies, trade unions and voluntary organisations working to improve the lives of workers – have dealt with concrete complaints about abusive labour conditions in the textile and garment industry in South India. ETI aims to improve working conditions in global supply chains by implementing the ETI Base Code of labour practice. SAI aims to empower workers and managers at all levels of businesses and supply chains, using the SA8000® Standard. Both ETI and SAI have grievance mechanisms in place to deal with breaches of the ETI Base Code and the SA8000® standard. For this paper the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO, the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN and Homeworkers Worldwide (HWW) assess the effectiveness of these complaint procedures – specifically when it comes to improving the working conditions and labour rights of young women and girl workers in Tamil Nadu.

The authors draw general conclusions about the quality of these grievance mechanisms, using the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) as an evaluative frame of reference. ICN and SOMO conclude that the ETI and SAI complaint mechanisms do not provide the needed remedy to the affected workers. The mechanisms do not meet the requirements of the UNGP.

Both mechanisms need to improve procedures in terms of accessibility, legitimacy, predictability, equitability, transparency and rights-compatibility. The parties to the complaints – namely the buying companies, ETI and SAI and the certification bodies Registro Italiano Navale (RINA) and Bureau Veritas Certification (BVC) – were given the opportunity to respond to the findings at key points during the research process. The factories and spinning mills where the violations were reported are not mentioned by name in this paper but are referred to as Factory 1 etc.

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Every one of us wears shoes every day. But do we ever ask ourselves where the leather comes from to make our shoes? How is the skin of an animal turned into a shoe? Who does this work and under what conditions? This report takes us on a journey to the beginning of a leather shoe. The report looks at the leather industry in India and reveals the social and environmental impacts of tanneries. It provides a glimpse at the adverse conditions at tanneries in India, where people work with minimal or no protective gear, for payment below the minimum wage and no social security benefit. The workers themselves suffer from occupational diseases and the communities around the tanneries must deal with polluted rivers and drinking water and the dumping of solid waste without regard to environmental standards and rules. 

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