NL-KVK-41210820-FGG
Clean Clothes Campaign
Fair Green and Global Alliance - CCC - overall
The aim of the Fair Green and Global Alliance and its programme is to reach socially just, inclusive, environmentally sustainable societies through democratic, transparent and equitable economic and political structures and practices.
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NL-KVK-41210820-FGG-ToC2
Clean Clothes Campaign
FGG CCC ToC 2: Improved Trade and Investment
CCC will push for trade agreements to ensure that ILO Conventions on employment relationships, wages, gender specific labour issues, freedom of association etc. are improved, adopted and respected thus improving working conditions in garment/sportswear supply chains. This will impact governments in the south and north as well as major brands affected by such agreements. It will provide southern partners with knowledge and improved capacity for lobbying for the implementation of labour clauses in trade agreements, accessing and enlarging the space and influence to negotiate the inclusion of such standards as well as involvement in the consequences of agreements (and non-compliance of) on garment workers. Discrimination and unequal pay are rife within the industry. CCC works with many women's groups and specifically supports capacity building of female worker representatives/organisers. We will ensure that gender specific issues are highlighted in discussions of labour clauses. CCC has good relations with many Dutch embassies/consulates as well as access to Dutch members in the European Parliament. These may be called upon to support our partners in producing countries as well as in regional/global lobby efforts in this dossier. CCC will undertake an initial mapping of opportunities for leverage, potential allies and short/long term objectives on specific agreements/countries to gather areas of concern for partners in producing countries and capacity needs and identify at least two key areas of work for following years. A mapping will also look at regional economic forums such as ASEAN, APEC & regional/bilateral trade agreements in the context of CCC's Global Strategic Framework (e.g. living wages, OSH, freedom of association) and ensure agreements do not erode labour rights progress. CCC will lobby and demand that investor protection clauses do not undermine existing worker protections. Pursuing public procurement practices that supports improvements. Plans for future lobby of OECD governments to support labour positive reforms. CCC will participate and lobby at relevant events (UN, ILO, OECD) and Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) where effective. CCC will incorporate in a smart way other CCC work and lobby efforts to ensure our capacity building and lobby work is coherent and globally balanced with partner input. We will develop new partnerships to investigate opportunities for and obstacles to such work. We will form an international expert group in relation to trade agreements to develop a unified Network strategy. CCC will support workers’ understanding of power relations in global supply chains through effectively sharing information. CCC will be sharing information within the CCC & larger network on mechanisms/impact of GSP provisions, and consulting with other organisations to determine appropriate opportunities. We collaborate with global network(s) of pro-labour lawyers to build coordinated campaigns around legal demands for remedy, prevention, protection & corporate accountability and explore possibilities for legal action. At the national level, (support efforts to) CCC forms coalitions among different trade unions, other forms of worker organisations and NGOs to develop demands and strategies for pressuring governments.
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Outcome C: Alternatives Developed
Alternative approaches to the current trade and investment regime—which are people-driven, gender inclusive and sustainable policies and practices that improve policy coherence for development, such as the Alternative Trade Mandate—have been developed, piloted and promoted by FGG and civil society actors.
2.C
# alternative approaches to the current trade and investment regime developed with CSOs in LLMICs that have been developed, piloted and/or promoted.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
No results expected.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
The GSP Platform, of which CCC is a prominent member, finalized a statement presenting its recommendations for a new EU Regulation for the Generalised System of Preferences. The suggested amendments focus on transparency, CSO participation, applicable international Conventions and monitoring. Such changes would contribute to more impactful regulation, in particular when it comes to upholding the labour and human rights situation in beneficiary countries. The document was directed at EU Member States. Other signatories include The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Act Allliance and FIDH. (1)
Outcome D: Agendas Set
Decision makers prioritise improvement measures due to support from influential civil society actors, critical media attention, increased public awareness and effective scrutiny of trade and investment policies.
2.D
# proposals for improvement to policies related to trade and investment discussed by national, regional and international government bodies and/or by private policy makers, in academia, public agenda, media and social movements.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
CCC invited members of EP to visit Sri Lanka to directly hear from partners, in prep for GSP renewal and the Sri Lankan Minister of Labour gave the commitment to share 50 percent of the GSP benefits to the workers. The promise of the minister will need to be monitored in 2018 for fulfillment (1) CCC lobbied the European Union to start a trade investigation under the GSP 'Everything but Arms' scheme – which allows Bangladesh preferential access to the EU market. SKC actively involved in this lobby work, including organizing a twitter-storm at EP members to support the call for a trade investigation on Bangladesh. The EU did not launch a trade investigation yet, but it remains on the radar of the policymakers. Several MEPs are pushing for stronger actions, although the EC has resisted so far to take non-symbolic measures. The EC acknowledges Bangladesh violates terms, and has condemned Bangladesh, but without changing the trade status so far. (1) CCC lobbied the European Union to urge the government of Bangladesh to improve the labour situation before the annual review of the Sustainability Compact between Bangladesh, the European Union and the International Labour Organization (ILO). When the review took place, Bangladesh' lack of progress remained without repercussions. CCC is urging the European Commission to stop extending deadlines and act upon its warnings to the Bangladesh government. As in the GSP result, the Commission sends threatening letters and condemnations, but stops short of taking punitive measures. (1) CCC joined the GSP Reform Platform, a coalition to work on GSP Midterm Review to make sure input from trade unions and labor rights activists is heard in the process. CCC put the transparency of the progress of countries on the agenda, clarified the role that CSOs have to play in the GSP countries in the review, and developed views on what the consequences should be if countries do not make enough progress. (1)
- lobby at EU level for an open import database or information exchange, where brands must declare where their products are produced down to factory level. Such databases partly exist in other markets, and are also available to private parties for selected producing countries, but the general public and Civil Society currently has no 'right to know' within the EU. There is however a rising awareness that such a "right to know" is both urgent and feasible, and should be on a EU level.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
No results expected for 2016-2017.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
Outcome F: Practice Changed
Improved trade and investment policies and processes are implemented and enforced.
2.F
# mechanisms, policies and regulations implemented and enforced by national, regional and international government bodies to ensure policies related to trade and investment advance policy coherence for development in LLMICs.
All baselines set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
No results expected for 2018
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
No results are expected for 2016-2017.
Outcome A: Enabling Environment
The rights and (legal) space of people, communities and civil society actors in Low- and Lower-Middle Income Countries (LLMICs) active on trade and investment are protected.
2.A.a
# mechanisms put in place or improved by governments that guarantee access for civil society to democratic decision making processes related to trade and investment, including the right to resist developments.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
No results are expected for 2016-2017.
2.A.b
# effective legal and other grievance mechanisms adopted or improved by governments via which CSOs and communities can resolve grievances with governments and companies related to trade and investment and claim their environmental, human and worker rights.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
- Produce overview of national laws and initiatives on Due Diligence (German textile partnership, UK anti-slavery act, Dutch covenant, Dutch ant-child labour law, French law on duty of care) and how they can be used as grievance mechanism to enhance worker protection. Based on this review we will consider starting strategic litigation. [this is preparatory work for legal cases, which probably won't conclude in 2018 but will be started that year]
No results expected for 2016-2017.
Outcome E: Policies Changed
Policies related to trade and investment are improved, so that they advance policy coherence for development.
2.E
# mechanisms, policies and regulations improved or introduced by national, regional and international government bodies to ensure policies related to trade and investment advance policy coherence for development in LLMICs.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
- 2 Countries (out of 3 where the review/extension is upcoming) implement steps during the GSP review process to improve the implementation of laws on strengthening FoA and labour laws. CCC and partners lobby and advocate with the EU bodies (European Parliament and Commission) that review the GSP status of these countries, to make sure the steps are meaningful before an extension of the GSP status is granted.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
No results expected for 2016-2017.
Outcome B: Capacities Strengthened
Increased capacity of civil society actors to research, network and advocate on trade and investment.
n/a
2.B
# CSOs in LLMICs that lobby and advocate for improved policies related to trade and investment, based on increased skills, knowledge or network contacts.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
Shared knowledge and lobbying strategies among (16) partner organisation in South Asia during the South Asia meeting on a special session on GSP/GSP+. They have a better understanding on how the GSP mechanism can be used to improve both labour laws as well as the actual implementation of these in their respective countries; and have contacts with relevant MEPs. They have (both collectively as CCC partners and individually) spoken to MEPs, sent delegates to EP hearings on the subject and participated in expert meetings.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
No results expected.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
1. Partners in Sri Lanka (1) and Pakistan (1) will better leverage the GSP+ process thanks to their improved knowledge on and international support for this matter, which results from content input from CCC and lobby through CCC on the European Parliament.
CCC and partners continued to give input and strategize on GSP/GSP+ obligations. In September CCC organised a two days consultation meeting in Nepal, in which 21 unions and NGOs from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka came together to learn and mutually develop capacities from GSP/GSP + action experiences, and develop strategies to lobby the EU and governments. A joint statement was worked out as a result of this meeting which will be used in the following year after sign-off by the unions and NGOs. The EU’s GSP/GSP+ (Generalised Scheme of Preferences) reduces or fully removes import duties from products coming into the EU market from LLMICs that implement international conventions related to human rights, labour rights, protection of the environment and good governance. Countries where such rights and practices are being violated are liable to lose their GSP/GSP+ status, something which offers lobbying opportunities against such violations and has the potential to advance human and labour rights, as well as promote civic space. [20] CCC member organisation in Pakistan organised a lobby and advocacy conference in Islamabad to pressure their government on the GSP+ commitments which also strengthened other NGOs and Unions understanding on the GSP+ requirements and the way to use this for promotion of labour and human rights in Pakistan. This is a follow-up conference organised by CCC member at the country level after the CCC meeting in Nepal on GSP. CCC inputs on GSP enabled the member to organise this meeting. [1]
CCC continued to work with its partners on ways to leverage the GSP/GSP+ framework in order to increase transparency, accountability and space for civil society. As a result, one CCC partner from Bangladesh and one from Pakistan were able to advocate towards members of the European Parliament. (2)
NL-KVK-41210820-FGG-ToC1
Clean Clothes Campaign
FGG CCC ToC 1: Improved Corporate Conduct
Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) aims to improve working conditions in the global garment industry, and to this aim engages in lobby, advocacy, campaigning and awareness raising targeting all stakeholders involved throughout the ready-made-garment supply chains. In its five-year global strategic framework the CCC network has committed to joint actions on the key issues of wages, occupational health and safety and stable employment relationships. Freedom of association and gender are at the core of these issues. Freedom of association is fundamental to bargain collectively and to advance occupational health and safety, increase wages, ensure full employment relationships and end discrimination. A thorough understanding of how gender shapes the experiences of women garment workers and perpetuates patterns of exploitation, needs to be at the basis of bottom-up worker organising, participation and bargaining. In this program, CCC will work with partners in key garment producing countries to support their lobby and advocacy work to increase the national minimum wage levels and implement minimum wage legislation. In the context of national wage struggles CCC will pressure brands and retailers to increase wages throughout the entire supply chains to a living wage level. CCC will lobby MSIs to put in place mechanisms to require from companies to provide time-bound progress on the implementation from living wages in their supply chains. CCC will work with partners in key garment producing countries to pressure governments to enforce better national and international regulations on Occupational Health and Safety and access to remedy, of workers’ safety. The CCC will strengthen the network with National and Global Unions, NGOs to pressure companies to realize effective OHS programs involving unions and workers. Capacity building of unions and federations in Bangladesh focus on identifying gender based abuses and violences at work, family and society; at Bangladesh factory level trade unions and their federations in organising, representation, negotiation and lobby work. Unions and labour NGOs from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and India will have the opportunity to learn key lessons from the implementation of the Bangladesh Accord at a Asia level meeting CCC will engage in lobby and advocacy to ensure the use of precarious work arrangements in the global supply chain (short-term or fixed-duration contracts, part-time, casual and seasonal work, apprenticeships, 'sumangali' schemes etc.) is regulated. As a result of this work, Southern organisations will be provided with knowledge and capacity building on precarious work arrangements, protection when defending rights in concrete cases of abuse of contracts, and increased space to engage in lobby and advocacy at supply chain, national and global level. In 2016 the CCC together with Global Unions, National Federations and labour NGOs will form National and Global coalitions and improve strategies to campaign and pressure governments to take punitive actions to end attacks on trade union organisers and violation of freedom of association rights. CCC will begin to support trainings to strengthen the capacity of unions and federations in organising, transforming into truely independent, democratic unions, include, empower, mobilize and represent the women workers, migrant workers, and workers employed on non-standard contracts. Governments, EU, ILO and other bodies will be pressured to focus on garment supply chain and freedom of association violations. Mutual capacity on freedom of association campaigning will be developed. CCC will focus on developing an international lobby advocacy strategy on Freedom of Association along with Bangladesh Unions and Global Unions and labour rights organisations. Jointly with partners CCC will target international and regional economic forums and lobby at relevant events (OECD, EU Flagship on the Garment industry, Dutch government/EU presidency, International Labour Conference 2016) to support wage increases, and improved OHS prevention laws and enforcement mechanisms; to establish permanent mechanisms to access full and fair compensation and remedy; to achieve a meaningful interpretation of 'due diligence' and discredit the commercial social auditing system; to highlight the CCC agenda on stable, full and long-term employment; and to support a call to ban sandblasting globally. CCC will work with governments when key partners are directly calling for governmental support or engaging in negotiations and actions that require support from third countries (eg European governments in countries where a national CCC is established), and in cases of attacks on labour activists, union organisers and leaders in the context of the EU guidelines for protection of HRDs. In 2016 the CCC will work with the Dutch ministry, specifically DDE, around the Living Wage conference that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and their German counterparts organize in Islamabad. Enforceable brand agreements are negotiated with companies (brands and retailers) that have a responsibility for working conditions and workers' rights in their supply chains. The agreements deal with a 'root-cause' issue that is relevant for the local context. CCC will work with partners in key garment producing countries to empower them to negotiate directly with brands and retailers to sign Enforceable Brand Agreements including wage clauses, and will push brands and retailers producing in Asian and Eastern European garment producing countries to take interim steps (such as interim wage payments) to increase wages towards living wage benchmarks, including the Asia Floor Wage. To ensure implementation of the Bangladesh Accord, with a strong focus on the establishment of the OHS Committees in the Accord listed factories, CCC will strategically collaborate with GUFs, Bangladesh Unions and partners to work within and outside the Accord Steering Committee meetings. In Indonesia CCC will support the implementation of the FoA Protocol. CCC will develop and run campaigns to push companies to improve the observance of human and labour rights in their supply chains, and hold companies accountable for the implementation of prior commitments to improve safety and wages. Lobby and public pressure will continue on existing cases of fire & building safety: to ensure victims receive full compensation and remedy. CCC provides support to Human Rights Defenders in the garment industry through its urgent appeals work, with a focus on gender based violence cases, freedom of association violations, wage and severance payment and cases of building safety to sustain and broaden impact of past years. CCC will support partners to submit cases of rights violations with non-judicial grievance mechanisms (NJGM), in particular the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Accord, as well as multistakeholder initiatives in the garment industry, the OECD, ILO and regional and global human rights mechanisms. Cases are brought to the attention to CCC through its urgent appeals system, and through engaging in NJGM effective remedy for garment workers and their organisations is sought as well as strengthening and improving the accessibility and effectiveness of the NJGMs used. CCC will support garment labour partners to work with international organisations, including OECD Watch, global unions and Human Rights organisations to submit cases to the ILO freedom of association commitee, National Contact Points (OECD) and UN bodies. CCC works on implementing a new network structure, which partly consists of establishing and developing Asian and European regional coalitions, regional coordinating bodies, working international groups and more. Our network development also focuses on improving and maintaining a communication and information sharing system within the network. We make sure that CCC and its partners have the increased skills, knowledge and network contacts to have gender issues fully integrated and executed in all activities, lobby and public outreach. Concretely, we will further develop a gender policy to be used throughout our network (which will also include a gender focus and gender specific language in our communication). We will continue our capacity building via courses, regional meetings, national exchanges between women worker leaders, exchanges between factory women workers and women worker leaders and more. Our focus on highlighting gender based violence in concrete labour rights violations cases, as well as supporting women leadership at workplace and national trade union/NGO level, contribute to gender inclusivity and equality.
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Outcome C: Alternatives Developed
A range of alternative, participatory initiatives and models related to corporate conduct have been developed, piloted and promoted by FGG and civil society actors, from best practices through to enforceable multi-stakeholder agreements.
n/a
1.C
# alternative, participatory initiatives and models related to corporate conduct meeting core criteria including sustainability, participation (m/f), transparency and equity (m/f), that have been developed, piloted and/or promoted.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
CCC consulted partners and witness signatories of the Accord and developed a proposal for inclusion of safeguard provisions on Freedom of Association in Accord II and shared with Global Union Federations to take it forward in negotiations. The Accord is an legally binding EBA with brands and companies while FoA is an issue that should be addressed by multiple actors including the government, factory owners and buyers and companies. Ideally the FoA issues should be addressed at the national level through national policy and practise change. But in Bangladesh context national mechanisms failed to address the concerns raised on FoA. Our aim is to change that in the long run while also proposing a way to resolve the FoA issues in the Accord covered factories. CCC consulted partners and witness signatories of the Accord and developed a proposal for inclusion of safeguard provisions on Freedom of Association in Accord II and shared with Global Union Federations to take it forward in negotiations. The Accord is an legally binding EBA with brands and companies while FoA is an issue that should be addressed by multiple actors including the government, factory owners and buyers and companies. Ideally the FoA issues should be addressed at the national level through national policy and practise change. But in Bangladesh context national mechanisms failed to address the concerns raised on FoA. Our aim is to change that in the long run while also proposing a way to resolve the FoA issues in the Accord covered factories. CCC consulted partners and witness signatories of the Accord and developed a proposal for inclusion of safeguard provisions on Freedom of Association in Accord II and shared with Global Union Federations to take it forward in negotiations. The Accord is an legally binding EBA with brands and companies while FoA is an issue that should be addressed by multiple actors including the government, factory owners and buyers and companies. Ideally the FoA issues should be addressed at the national level through national policy and practise change. But in Bangladesh context national mechanisms failed to address the concerns raised on FoA. Our aim is to change that in the long run while also proposing a way to resolve the FoA issues in the Accord covered factories.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
The Bangladesh Transition Accord 2018 is in place, a three-year renewal of the groundbreaking first Accord. CCC is on the Steering Committee and is one of the Witness Signatories (1). The Transition Accord coverage is extended to freedom of association. Around 50 brands signed the transition Accord in 2017. CCC supported a group of 20 Indian NGO's in developing the parameters of an Enforcable Brand Agreement against bonded labour. This in cooperation with the German "Textilbündniss" and others. (1)
- a Model Code of Conduct for brands is developed on how they should enforce dealing with non-standard contracts, subcontracting, agency employment and short term contracts. Currently under initial develpment by partners in South Asia, planned network-wide discussion and adoption across the CCC network in Q1 2018. – Finalized a model EBA (Enforceable Brand Agreement) on living wage, and decide upon the target brand list. The goal is to get one or more of the main brands to support a concrete, enforceable, measurable agreement to reach a living wage in an acceptable time-frame. – development of a second Indonesia protocol on wages, starting with sportswear sector – linked to World Championships campaign. (1)
One proposal will be developed on the protection and promotion of trade union rights in Bangladesh related to the Accord follow up post 2018 (1)NB Proposals will find support within ILO (ILO Group of Experts), governments, Global Union Federations, amongst others.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
1. CCC will provide an overview of, and critique of, the various national, European and international Due Diligence supply chain regulatory/legislative initiatives. This is done in a working group with participants from 6 LLMIC countries. This includes the Covenant (NL), Buendnis (DE), UK anti-slavery act, French law on duty of care, EU action plans, and UN and OECD forums. Together with partner organisations, CCC will show how these initiatives should be strengthened with binding regulations to have real and structural effect. (1) 2. CCC will publish a position paper highlighting the failure of social auditing, and develop and highlight working alternatives in that paper and follow-up statements. (1) 3. CCC supports Pakistan partners as they formulate, negotiate and sign an Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Pakistan, by facilitating exchange on lessons learned between Bangladeshi and Pakistan CSOs, to use the experiences from the Bangladesh accord to strengthen the proposed Pakistan accord. (1) 4. CCC publishes a position paper on Myanmar dispute settlement (1), and on Myanmar wage violations (which proposes a strategy for brands on how they can avoid these wage violations).
The Accord process in Pakistan is still an ongoing process. Bangladesh Accord staff visited Pakistan in September 2019 and explained in detail the Bangladesh Accord and the changes it made to the industry in preventing factory incidents. CCC supported Pakistan unions and NGOs to organise a consultation to discuss and reach a consensus on Pakistan Accord (1). This meeting was held in April 2019 in Karachi attended by around 20 organisations from Pakistan working in the garment and textiles sectors. At the end of the consultation meeting, Pakistan labour groups jointly signed a declaration calling to sign and implement an Accord in Pakistan. After this meeting a draft for the Pakistan Accord was worked out and the Pakistan Accord group invited Global Unions to start a process for the Accord in Pakistan and shared their input for the agreement. [1] The CCC network has worked intensively on developing an alternative for the current failing programmes to improve worker wages. An international campaign to create an Enforceable Wage Agreement to be signed and implemented by brands in their global supply chains was prepared by a) consulting unions within the CCC network on the structure of a future wage agreement and the role of grass roots unions in it leading to the announcement of their support for this campaign to the global union federations before launching a public campaign; b) the mobilisation of a large global coalition with a common understanding of the need for a worker led enforceable wage agreement (EWA). The campaign launch is foreseen for May 2020. From then convincing the first brands to adopt the agreement will start until the first will sign on. The campaign will generate additional knowledge on industry realities, mobilising civil society actors and building more favourable ground for future efforts. [1] After long-term campaigning and lobbying by the CCC network, with the confirmation of the Bangladesh Government's agreement in the fall in 2019, all stakeholders signed up to the trial of an Employment Injury Scheme in a number of factories. An Employment Injury Scheme would allow for pensions for workers injured on the job or the families of workers killed in the workplace. The trial is due to start in 2020. [1] Throughout the year, the CCC network examined closely the various national, European and international Due Diligence supply chain regulatory/legislative initiatives [including the Covenant (NL), Buendnis (DE), UK anti-slavery act, French law on duty of care, Dutch Child Labour Due Diligence Law, EU action plans, and UN and OECD forums]. Together with partner organisations, CCC substantiated how these initiatives should be strengthened with binding regulations to have real and structural effect. As a member of the MVO Platform, CCC actively contributed to activities of the working group that is working on a new mandatory due diligence law in the Netherlands. In September, the report “Fig Leaf for Fashion. How social auditing protects brands and fails workers” was launched and shared with key MSIs and brands in the garment sector. The report demonstrates the failure of commercial, voluntary social auditing practices and puts forward the case for binding regulation. [1]
A proposal for a Pakistan Accord to establish preventive safety on fire and building safety and other safety has been postponed to 2021. Instead, our focus remained on the Bangladesh Accord, whose work was transferred in June to the Ready-Made Garments (RMG) Sustainability Council, with a governance structure with employers, unions and brands. CCC, together with the other witness signatories, continues to have concerns about this transfer and has been vocal about its concerns regarding transparency as well as enforcement and complaint mechanisms. With the Accord due to expire in 2021, CCC joined unions and other labour rights organisations in and outside Bangladesh to call for an international binding safety agreement, which will ensure that the brands’ commitments to factory safety across their garment supply chains are legally binding and can be upheld in court. An international binding safety agreement is furthermore needed to allow for the expansion of this successful model from Bangladesh to other countries with notoriously unsafe garment factories, such as Pakistan. (1)
Together with over 60 other civil society organisations CCC presented on 23 April its strategy (summary) proposal for the textile, garment, leather and footwear sectors to the European Commission, urging that companies need to be held legally accountable for creating fairer and more sustainable supply chains. This is especially urgent now that the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that in times of crisis many companies turn their backs on any previous promises of responsible behaviour. (1)
In June 2020, SKC and SOMO presented evidence and recommendations after researching member brands’ performance on the due diligence reporting of the Agreement of Sustainable Garments and Textile (AGT). The results showed that real progress at the factory level is lacking (in terms of transparency, stakeholder engagement, achieving living wages and access to grievance mechanisms etc). The report which included clear recommendations on mandatory human rights due diligence and to strengthening the AGT was sent to politicians and the AGT itself. (1)
CCC’s report “Fig Leaf for Fashion. How social auditing protects brands and fails workers” (international publication 2019) was published in Belgium and Germany (translated national publications in 2020). The report’s evidence clearly shows the failure of corporate-controlled social auditing, while making a strong case for mandatory transparency and legally binding commitments to remediation. (1)
Plans for a launch in 2020 of a non brand-targeted campaign on Living Wage Enforceable Brand Agreement (LW EBA) were put on hold due to the pandemic drastically shifting realities on the ground, as explained earlier. Brand and retailers around the world responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by canceling orders, delaying placement of new orders, or forcing discounts on goods already produced. This way they offloaded the main risks and costs of the crisis upon the people who are least able to pay this price, after having been paid poverty wages for years: the workers. Labour rights organisations and unions in the CCC network, together with many other organisations around the world, campaigned intensely for brands to commit to wage assurance and set up a severance guarantee fund that will prevent workers from being left penniless. See here for more information on the COVID-19 wage assurance & severance guarantee fund
(1)
Outcome F: Practice Changed
Improved corporate policies and government regulations have been put into practice and enforced.
n/a
1.F.a
# concrete steps taken by governments to actively identify, prevent and mitigate adverse social, gender and environmental impacts of corporate activities and those in corporations' value chains.
All baselines set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
CCC, partners and Global Union Federations relaunched the compensation campaign on an occupational health and safety case in end 2015 and intensified the efforts in 2016. CCC approached the Dutch and German governments and the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2016. On requests of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, the ILO enabled talks with the German retailer KiK, IndustriALL Global Union and the Clean Clothes Campaign since May 2016 to arrive at the compensation arrangement, in accordance with the ILO’s Employment Injury Benefits Convention 121. On the eve of fourth anniversary of fire in September 2016, KiK Textilien signed an agreement to pay 5.15 million USD to fund the compensation for injured workers and families of the deceased workers. Pakistan government agreed to the process for compensation of Ali enterprises and ILO is taking a lead and convening role for Ali Arrangement.CCC, partners and Global Union Federations relaunched the compensation campaign on an occupational health and safety case in end 2015 and intensified the efforts in 2016. CCC approached the Dutch and German governments and the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2016. On requests of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, the ILO enabled talks with the German retailer KiK, IndustriALL Global Union and the Clean Clothes Campaign since May 2016 to arrive at the compensation arrangement, in accordance with the ILO’s Employment Injury Benefits Convention 121. On the eve of fourth anniversary of fire in September 2016, KiK Textilien signed an agreement to pay 5.15 million USD to fund the compensation for injured workers and families of the deceased workers. Pakistan government agreed to the process for compensation of Ali enterprises and ILO is taking a lead and convening role for Ali Arrangement.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
The Urgent Appeals system is the mechanism through which CCC gives support to workers whose rights are violated in specific and concrete cases. Cases can be resolved 'behind the scenes' by negotiating with brands or governments, or sometimes by public pressure and campaigning. UA case Haeson factory Bangladesh: after pressure, the Bangladesh government has acted to resolve workers problems. (1) UA case: a Thai labor activist acquited after pressure (1) UA case: another Thai labor activist will be released earlier from prison, after years of campaigning (1) UA case: Bangladesh crackdown on trade unions and labor activists: produced briefing paper, lobbied Sustainability Compact, lobbied EU, embassy actions. Bangladesh government dropped charges. SKC together with FNV and CNV protested outside Embassy in the Hague to demand the release of the detained union leaders and resolve the crisis. On 23 February 2017, first important steps were taken including the release of the labour leaders and activists. (1) (see also 2.D)
No results expected for 2018
* Pakistan government implement the ILO compensation scheme for Ali Enterprises survivors (1)
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
1. The Bangladeshi government will establish a permanent Employment Injury Insurance (EII) scheme in Bangladesh, after much pressure from CCC, allies and Bangladeshi partners, and support from brands for such a scheme. (1) This is a result of political lobby at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to advocate for a national Employment Injury Insurance scheme in Bangladesh.
The COVID crisis put on hold the process towards a National Employment Injury Insurance Scheme in Bangladesh, – effectively a compensation system for workplace injuries. Our work, aiming to cover all Ready-Made Garments workers, will continue 2021.
- Following similar successes in 2019, five more trumped-up criminal cases against workers in Bangladesh, who had participated in wage protests, were dismissed by the court. (5)
1.F.b
# concrete steps taken by companies to actively identify, prevent and mitigate adverse social, gender and environmental impacts of their activities and those in their value chains.
All baselines set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
(7) In 2016 we have worked on 21 Urgent Appeal cases in 11 different countries resulting in 7 (partial) success ranging from signing of agreements on fair compensation, to reinstatement, to the embassies intervening on severe violations and to companies taking action. Furthermore we have been actively involved in several solidarity campaigns asking for international attention concerning human rights violations in Asia. Completed the payments for a occupational health and safety case and agreement is reached for two other safety cases (3). CCC got involved in a case and took it forward with the Bangladesh Accord to resolve it. The factory was in violation of the terms of the Accord and the case was resolved through the Accord complaint procedure. Currently the Bangladesh unions are capable of using the Accord complaint mechanism and are now approaching the Accord directly, so there hasn't been a need for the CCC to get involved in Accord related cases. (1)
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
The Urgent Appeals system is the mechanism through which CCC gives support to workers whose rights are violated in specific and concrete cases. Cases can be resolved 'behind the scenes' by negotiating with brands or governments, or sometimes by public pressure and campaigning. The countries and locations in cases X1, X2 are anonymised to protect the workers. After much public pressure by CCC and CCC partners, Nike relented and let independent auditors like the WRC into their factories. (1) UA case Geox factory Serbia: agreement signed (1) UA case Faremo Philippines: agreement reached (1) UA case X1: CCC pushing brands to put pressure on factory management and parent company to meet the demands of the union resulted in an agreement stipulating the reinstatement of three trade union activists including back wages, withdrawal of legal cases and good industrial relations. However management did not implement the agreement in full spirit and one former trade union leader is not reinstated. CCC and the union are following upon with the brands calling upon them to intervene. (1) UA case X2: After more than a year putting pressure by CCC and allies on brands, management and parent company, an agreement was reached between factory management and union stipulating the reinstatement of two union leaders and workers, and the improvement of industrial relations. The union is formally registered. The implementation of the agreement needs to be closely monitored for a few outstanding issues (1) UA case Sri Lanka: Workers voted to have the trade union recognised as legitimate bargaining partner in a workers’ referendum in two factories following on a period of intimidation of workers for their union membership and other union busting measures. The union is now recognized as a legitimate representative in the conflict on behalf of the workers. Actions included CCC, League, IndustriALL and other international partners addressing international buyers of the company. (1) [NB. Accord has a functioning dispute resolution, which functions without CCC direct involvement; hence the Results mentioned in the targets for 2016-2017 in this area are not counted here.]
– an estimated 15 Urgent Appeal cases will be taken up, of which an estimated 10 lead to successful remedy of grievances. (10) NOTE: some of these steps might be taken by governments, but often after brands intervene as result of CCC campaigning. So some results could fall under 1.F.a. – increase pressure on brands to sign Transparency Pledge; monitor the results of those brands that have signed on. Goals: at least 5 brands will publish their supplier data in an open, transparent way. (5)
Resolved UA cases (6), KIK & Tazreen & RanaPlaza (3) protocol pays out to workers' families, resolved dispute resolution Accord cases (11)
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
1. The signatories in the Bangladesh Accord (including over 200 brands) expand it to include Freedom of Association violations in their complaints mechanism. (1) 2. H&M will take a concrete, measurable step in the direction of a living wage, after pressure by CCC/SKC (together with other European CCCs, WeMove.eu and CCC's Living Wage workgroup which includes strong representation by LLMIC CSOs) in the the "Turn Around H&M" campaign. (1) 3. More brands join the Transition Accord in Bangladesh, with special focus on drawing in the home textile sector and Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) brands, after lobby and campaigning by CCC and LLMIC partners. (1) The goal is that all FWF member brands sign the 2018 Bangladesh Accord. CCC/SKC lobbies through the Committee of Experts and FWF board, and through public campaigning in collaboration with other CCCs on targeted FWF member brands. All Dutch Covenant member brands sign the 2018 Bangladesh Accord (1) as a result of lobby activities at the Covenant. 4. IKEA signs the 2018 Bangladesh Accord (1) after pressure via CCC’s social media campaigns and CCC collaboration with FNV. 5. The ILO and other actors establish a bridging solution for remedy for families affected by recent factory incidents in Bangladesh as a result of lobby, meetings and eventually public campaigning by CCC in cooperation with Bangladeshi CSOs. (1) 6. In approximately (12) Urgent Appeal cases, brands take concrete steps to mitigate violations and thereby resolve the UA case. Steps can be to pay back wages, to re-hire unjustly sacked workers, or other remedies. Focus on which cases are taken up is partly determined by the type of violations and which ones the LLMIC CSOs find most pressing and strategic; in dialogue with the LLMIC CSOs the dominant themes are factory closures, Freedom of Association, wages, gender and migrants. An estimated 3 of those 12 will get lobby and campaigning support from SKC in the Netherlands
The case of PT Kahoindah Citragarment in Bekasi, Indonesia, has been resolved with the agreement on the payment of full severance to the workers by the company. The total amount will be 4.5 million USD, which is likely the largest amount workers have ever won in a single case of illegally denied severance and an important precedent in Indonesia. CCC member Workers Rights Consortium (WRC) conducted an investigation in response to complaints from workers received by WRC after the factory announced its intention to close. Violations of US university labour standards and buyer codes were identified, and WRC lobbied brands (Fanatics, Gap, and Under Armour) to pressure the supplier. As a result, the supplier agreed to honour its obligations, and WRC – with input from workers - worked with the supplier to develop a plan for the efficient distribution of funds to the former employees. After a WRC-led worker outreach effort, more than 99% of the eligible workers visited a designated meeting place near the location of the closed factory to sign documents confirming their acceptance of the planned payments. WRC was also a signatory in the agreement. [1] The Fair Labor Association accepted the CCC complaint against Uniqlo and S.Oliver and their lack of compensation and severance payments to workers after the closure of the Jaba Garmindo factory in Indonesia. FLA will start an investigation into Uniqlo and S.Oliver for violating FLA’s code of conduct [1]
In a number of Urgent Appeal cases, brands took concrete steps to mitigate violations and thereby resolve the case as a result of the pressure from CCC lobbying and campaigning. These are:
- A group of workers in Romania received their full back wages after an intense media campaign went viral and international pressure led to three brands ( Inditex, Holy Fashion, and a UK high street brand) sourcing from the factory to take responsibility. (1)
- Three brands ( Disney,Tesco and Starbucks - NBC Universal followed in 2021) paid the 26 Burmese migrant garment workers from the Kanlayanee factory in Thailand who had been fighting against wage theft. (1)
- Through the power of worker organising, international solidarity, and pressure on brands, workers have won victories against union busting in three separate factories in Myanmar. Workers at the Rui-Ning factory celebrated the signing of an agreement between the union, factory management and Inditex, regarding worker reinstatement, re-hiring dismissed union members and backpay of wages. The union at the Huabo Times factory signed an agreement with the factory management to reinstate 26 dismissed union members and meet union demands. And at the Myan Mode factory, union and management signed an agreement concerning the reinstatement of 75 dismissed union leaders and workers (although, disappointingly, 545 other union members would only be considered for re-hiring once the business resumes at a pre-Covid level, and only if they fit the management’s new requirements. (3)
CCC campaigned throughout the year for garment brands to pay up on all orders placed before the COVID pandemic. As a result, around 25 global brands (including C&A, Primark, Amazon, Nike, H&M and Ikea) paid in full for pre-existing orders. (25)
Outcome D: Agendas Set
Private and public sector decision makers have prioritised improvement measures due to support from influential civil society actors, critical media attention, increased public awareness and effective scrutiny of corporate conduct.
n/a
1.D
# proposals for improvement of corporate conduct discussed by private and public sector decision makers and/or in academia, public agenda, media and social movements.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
(1) In May-June 2016, the International Labour Conference for the first time focused on “decent work in global supply chains”. The CCC contribution is the active participation in the ILC, the research and position paper done in advance, the lobbying done before and during the conference. CCC was present with a delegation of critical trade unions, to influence the debates both inside the workers groups as well as in plenary sessions (where we had received a speaking slot as International NGO) A position paper was shared and publicly referred to, and several points were taken up in the outcome papers. (0) The European Commission announced 2 years ago a flagship initiative on responsible management of the garment supply chain. CCC participated actively in the consultations and contributed with a proposal to mandate an ombudsperson and the CCC Transparency position paper. In April 2016, CCC expressed its frustration on this process that failed to reach any concrete outputs. MEPs decided to adopt an INI report on the flagship initiative on garment sector and CCC was provided inputs and comments on the drafts. Result not counted due to disappointing outcome. (1) Together with the MVO platform SKC/CCC presented our view on the Duty of Care research towards parliamentarians who raised it towards the government during official parliament hearings. SKC/CCC together with the MVO platform pushed for a MVO toezichthouder outside of the SER (Dutch Social and Economic Committee) to monitor the implementation of the convenants and to function as a independent body to be addressed by all stakeholders. (1) In May-June 2016, the International Labour Conference for the first time focused on “decent work in global supply chains”. The CCC contribution is the active participation in the ILC, the research and position paper done in advance, the lobbying done before and during the conference. CCC was present with a delegation of critical trade unions, to influence the debates both inside the workers groups as well as in plenary sessions (where we had received a speaking slot as International NGO) A position paper was shared and publicly referred to, and several points were taken up in the outcome papers. (0) The European Commission announced 2 years ago a flagship initiative on responsible management of the garment supply chain. CCC participated actively in the consultations and contributed with a proposal to mandate an ombudsperson and the CCC Transparency position paper. In April 2016, CCC expressed its frustration on this process that failed to reach any concrete outputs. MEPs decided to adopt an INI report on the flagship initiative on garment sector and CCC was provided inputs and comments on the drafts. Result not counted due to disappointing outcome. (1) Together with the MVO platform SKC/CCC presented our view on the Duty of Care research towards parliamentarians who raised it towards the government during official parliament hearings. SKC/CCC together with the MVO platform pushed for a MVO toezichthouder outside of the SER (Dutch Social and Economic Committee) to monitor the implementation of the convenants and to function as a independent body to be addressed by all stakeholders. (1) In May-June 2016, the International Labour Conference for the first time focused on “decent work in global supply chains”. The CCC contribution is the active participation in the ILC, the research and position paper done in advance, the lobbying done before and during the conference. CCC was present with a delegation of critical trade unions, to influence the debates both inside the workers groups as well as in plenary sessions (where we had received a speaking slot as International NGO) A position paper was shared and publicly referred to, and several points were taken up in the outcome papers. (0) The European Commission announced 2 years ago a flagship initiative on responsible management of the garment supply chain. CCC participated actively in the consultations and contributed with a proposal to mandate an ombudsperson and the CCC Transparency position paper. In April 2016, CCC expressed its frustration on this process that failed to reach any concrete outputs. MEPs decided to adopt an INI report on the flagship initiative on garment sector and CCC was provided inputs and comments on the drafts. Result not counted due to disappointing outcome. (1) Together with the MVO platform SKC/CCC presented our view on the Duty of Care research towards parliamentarians who raised it towards the government during official parliament hearings. SKC/CCC together with the MVO platform pushed for a MVO toezichthouder outside of the SER (Dutch Social and Economic Committee) to monitor the implementation of the convenants and to function as a independent body to be addressed by all stakeholders.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
Transparency Pledge: a public campaign together with a coalition (CCC, HRW, ICAR, ILRF, WRC, Maquila Solidarity Network, IndustriAll, ITUC, UNI Global Union), targeting 70+ brands to publish their supply chain. 70.000 signatures gathered. Several brands started making the data available due to the campaign. As a result Hugo Boss started to publish its production sites and Primark would start publishing its production sites in February 2018. (1) SKC published a position paper on Transparency including recommendations for brands and Dutch and European government underlining its importance. The paper was distributed to brands via the Covenant as well as to Dutch MPs and Dutch MEPs (1) A petition signed by nearly 11,000 people calling upon a living wage for garment workers in India was handed over to the Minister of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation by SKC and the India Committee of the Netherlands. The minister promised to encourage the brands within the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile (Covenant) to develop a roadmap to achieve a living wage. (1) Dutch Parliament questions have been raised in relation to the Bangladesh crackdown, transparency in supply chains, the first annual report of the Dutch Agreement, the Transition Accord 2018, different reports including SKC's publication on European Sweatshops, ICN's publication Fabric of Slavery and SOMO's report The Myanmar Dilemma. (1) CCC participated in the OECD round-table Due Diligence in Garment Sector and gave input on the debates (1) CCC presented a session and participated in other sessions at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights raising the violations of human rights and labour rights in the supply chain (1) CCC joined the Worker-Driven Social Responsibility Network (WSR), participated in global meeting in NY where strategies for improving corporate conduct were discussed between a wide range of experts. (1) CCC Participated in ILC conference in Geneva, discussing Bangladeshi worker rights, FoA in Bangladesh and other countries (1) CCC published a report, did research and campaigned on poverty wages and mandatory overtime in South East Europe & Turkey, which also set benchmarks for Living Wage in the various countries in the region. SKC released publication in Dutch. As a result, Mart Visser published its production countries on its website, not yet its suppliers list.(1) SKC made comparison between factory list of the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile and the Bangladesh Accord on Building and Fire Safety revealing that not all Covenant signatory brands signed the Transition Accord 2018 even though it is recommended to the signatory companies. Following the comparison an intensive discussion between SKC and Covenant took place in regard to the importance of the Accord, and a request to all Covenant members to sign the Accord(1) Dutch and European Parliament Members stepped in SKCs pop-up sweatshop (street action) to sit behind a sewing machine to experience the daily life of women garment workers and called upon mandatory due diligence and transparency. This street action was well received by the passers-by and attracted a lot of media attention. (1) CCC in regular contact with Embassies (including the Dutch Embassy) and the EU about the political crackdown in Cambodia to seek opportunities to raise concerns bilateral or multilateral. The EU announced that it would watch Cambodia closely until the elections in 2018. CCC and allies also had meetings with ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights about the situation. (1) As a result of CCCs reach out to international brands sourcing from Cambodia, the Ethical Trading Initiative sent a letter to the Minister of Labour and the Minister of Commerce to share concerns about the escalating repression in Cambodia. (1) CCC and SOMO jointly formulated recommendations to Fair Wear Foundation to improve the Myanmar policy based on the findings of the research report by SOMO revealing high risks on low wages, forced overtime, child labour and labour infringements at a number of factories. CCC shared feedback from Myanmar partners with FWF. Follow up discussion will take place within the Committee of Expert in 2018. (1)
- participation in the OECD advisory group, and the OECD forum on due diligence in the the garment and footwear sector. The following topics will be put on the agendas of these bodies: Transparency in (sub)contracting and sourcing of material Remedy mechanisms Freedom of Association rights and how to guarantee them – Work with European lobby organisations to support the Transparency Pledge as policy goal across EU. – Transparency Pledge accepted as a requirement for Fair Wear Foundation membership.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
* A special discussion during the ILC on supply chains responsibility including wage protection, freedom of association and freedom of migration on ILC agenda (1); Transparency and disclosure of (garment) supply chain data on EU agenda (1), Proposal to Dutch ministry and parliament following the conclusions of the “Duty of Care for Dutch companies” research by University of Utrecht (1).
1. (Dutch) political parties publicly endorse plans in relation to mandatory due diligence (1) as a result of CCC and partners from [LLMICs] sharing briefings, publishing a position paper and disseminating an info-graphic on the matter. 2. The European Parliament will discuss mandatory due diligence on EU level, as a result of CCC starting a European Citizen Initiative. (1) 3. Media pay attention to CCC’s critique of the legitimacy of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition, as a result of CCC publishing reports, op-eds and otherwise conveying the message that the SAC’s efforts at self-regulation are failing and that stronger, binding mechanisms are needed (1) 4. The Open Apparel Registry steering group will consider setting common data standards for the supply chain transparency data that brands are publishing, as a result of their collaboration with CCC. (1) 5. One or more brands will publicly support and sign the proposed Pakistan Accord on Fire and Building Safety, as result of lobby by CCC, allies such as trade unions and Pakistani CSOs. This creates a precedent for others to sign. (1) 6. The India Committee of the Netherland's research and publication of the research on working and living conditions of (migrant) workers in the garment and textile industry in Tamil Nadu results in an increased understanding of the topic among brands and retailers, business and multi-stakeholder initiatives and improved policies and actions taken by them such as include improved guidelines for migrant housing in their Codes of Conduct and/or taking housing of migrant workers into account while monitoring the situation. The research is done in collaboration with Indian partners. (1) 7. Public opinion in a number of key European and East Asian countries is influenced by successful campaigns in concrete Urgent Appeal cases. To achieve this, CCC enhances and strengthens the campaigning part of the Urgent Appeal manual, to make it more gender-specific and inclusive, and include more and different campaign strategies and better identify and map the pressure points of targeted brands. Another part of this is to continue the Urgent Appeal solidarity fund, to make sure campaigning presence in key strategic markets and countries in Europe and East Asia is enhanced. (1) 8. Digital security will be higher on the agenda of social movements as a vital and necessary precaution to combat their shrinking space, concretely as a result of a training by CCC in at least one region (lower estimate 5 CSOs), if funding can be found priority on extra national trainings in Cambodia and Bangladesh (for now count 1, as we don't know the number of CSOs that will participate). 9. Brands and retailers will implement guidelines for factory-provided housing. The India Committee of the Netherlands monitors the implementation through critical dialogue and engagement with partners in Bangalore and with brands and multi-stakeholder initiatives. (1) 10. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs fully supports/advocates its continuation in the Bangladesh Accord/the Transition Monitor Committee’s agreement (1) as a result of political lobby by SKC (sharing write-ups and briefings amongst others). 11. One Dutch brand publishes a price make up (1) through developing and sharing a format for becoming transparent on how prices of a product are calculated. It shares this with other brands to increase transparency in relation to living wages. The format is partly based upon follow up research by CCC (done in 2018) on wages and working conditions of garment workers in South India (1). 12. The OECD National Contact Point decides on a legal case that CCC together with ECCHR filed in 2018 against auditing firm RINA to hold them accountable for failures in their auditing. A positive decision will expand legal options for remedy. (1) 13. The OECD decides positively on an ongoing complaint that CCC filed against Adidas on their failure of due diligence. (1) 14. The Dutch public gets an increased understanding of the importance of greater transparency in the garment industry, by SKC building a mobile sweatshop in a big city in the Netherlands, calling upon brands to sign the Transparency Pledge. (1) 15. Policy-makers engaged in the negotiations around the UN Binding Treaty on Business and Human Rights will bring in considerations around labour rights, as a result of CCC’s work in the Advisory Committee of this treaty. (1)
CCC organised and funded a trip to Denmark and The Netherlands of two Jaba Garmindo workers from Indonesia who made Uniqlo clothes for years, which was an unprecedented success in terms of outreach. We reached more than 2 million people, and Jaba Garmindo workers’ social media posts on the need for Uniqlo to pay the back wages and severance payments they were owed were shared more than 11.000 times. [1] The Turn Around, H&M! Campaign calling upon H&M to make good on its 2013 promise to pay workers in its supply chain a living wage ended up with over 180,000 signatures under the living wage petition, thousands of social media messages, media coverage (1) in a number of countries, and a mobilized base of consumers (1) who demand living wages for the workers who make their clothes. In May, CCC representatives handed over the #TurnAroundHM petition to the CEO Karl Johan Persson and Head of Sustainability Anna Gedda (1). During the subsequent shareholder meeting (AGM) the CEO reverted back to denying that H&M had ever made the commitment at the center of the campaign, i.e. that 850,000 workers would be paid a living wage. [3] The CCC network report ‘Tailored wages 2019: The state of pay in the global garment industry’ was launched. It reveals that none of the top 20 clothing companies can show that workers making their clothing in Asia, Africa, Central America or Eastern Europe are paid enough to escape the poverty trap. The research that underlies the Tailored wages 2019 report was additionally used by the University of Sheffield (1)for their study 'Corporate commitments to living wages in the garment industry', which was covered by some major media outlets (1) such as the Guardian and Reuters. [2] CCC together with the Pakistan Union and NGO partners, ILRF and WRC published Pakistan Safety report, “PAKISTAN’S GARMENT WORKERS NEED A SAFETY ACCORD”, which included the call for a Pakistan Safety Agreement in line with the Bangladesh Accord by trade unions and labour groups in Pakistan. It was presented to employers, the labour ministry and labour department in Sindh Province, who responded positively (3), well covered in Pakistan media (1) and shared it with brands sourcing from Pakistan (e.g. H&M, Next, Adidas, New Look, C&A, Target, Zeeman) (1) to start discussing about Pakistan as their next focus. The report was also shared with the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textiles (AGT) (1) who in turn shared the information with their member brands via the internal newsletter. [5] The report “Fig Leaf for Fashion. How social auditing protects brands and fails workers” was launched, written by CCC, with input from partner experiences in LLMICs, with considerable pick-up from the media in various countries (e.g. Just-Style, Etsy, EcoTextile News, ASI). The report was promoted at the UN Forum on Business and Human Rights in Geneva [1] CCC Turkey published a report on the risks of potassium, a chemical substance used for bleaching denim. This report is the result of a study which researches potassium permanganate’s (PP) harmful effects on denim bleaching workers. Being the first study conducted on the subject, it aims to lay foundation for future legal regulatory implementation, and was picked up by various Turkish media outlets [1] In 2018 C&A promised to implement hostel guidelines in their supply chains in response to a complaint raised with C&A followed from the report "Labour without Liberty" published in January of that year. Dutch CCC member Arisa followed up communication with C&A to monitor the implementation of its promise by emails, calls and a meeting during the OECD conference on garment and footwear in Paris, Febr 2019. In a call in 2019, C&A promised to Cividep, Garment Labour Union (GLU) and Arisa to share the guidelines in order to provide feedback on the guidelines. This did not happen. In October 2019, Arisa met again workers in India that were interviewed for the "Labour without Liberty" research. According to these workers no improvements in hostel conditions were realised. These findings were shared with C&A and another AGT signatory brands. Arisa continues follow up with C&A. C&A again promised to share the almost finalised hostel guidelines soon. Even though no concrete result has been reached in 2019, Arisa is building a file in order to be able to submit a formal complaint with AGT's complaint mechanism if concrete outcomes will not follow soon. [1] A CCC press release on a new business-led safety initiative launched in August in Vietnam and India by the sustainable trade initiative IDH drew attention to the need for companies to move away from business-driven initiatives and to start putting worker representatives to the centre of their safety projects. The news was picked up by several trade-oriented media and debunked earlier reports that an initiative similar to the Bangladesh Accord was expanding into these countries. [1] The Dutch Ministry and Dutch Embassy to Bangladesh were regularly updated by CCC with input from Bangladeshi CCC members on developments related to the Bangladesh Accord and its successor the RSC through briefings, meetings and calls. CCC shared its concerns related to the process and also shares the need for a credible and effective continuation. [1] CCC generated increased understanding of the importance of greater transparency in the garment industry amongst Dutch public by huge media coverage on eight Dutch brands, such as HEMA and Marlies Dekkers, signing the Transparency Pledge and the launch of a new report that announced that now 39 brands have signed the transparency Pledge (up from 17 in 2017). Transparent supply chains enable access to remedy for workers as it makes clear who wields the most power in a supply chain. [1]
Plans for a Tokyo Olympics 2020 campaign focusing on living wage as a human right had to be abandoned, since the Olympic Games did not take place.
CCC’s concerns in regard to the Ready-Made Garments (RMG) Sustainability Council (RSC) have been discussed by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Dutch Embassy to Bangladesh. The Ministry and the Embassy invite CCC to regular calls (twice a year) and have expressed their appreciation of CCC’s sharing of information. The Accord on Building and Fire Safety in Bangladesh is a recurring agenda item. We also keep policy makers up to date and share updates regarding the (Transition) Accord. In October the witness signatories released a public statement: https://cleanclothes.org/news/2020/can-the-garment-industrys-most-important-safety-programme-stay-on-course, which we have also shared with the embassy. More info on SKC website: https://www.schonekleren.nl/bangladesh-veiligheidsakkoord-open-brief/. The Accord Witness Signatory Statement of last October, led to a Dhaka-based discussion on the state of the RSC, in which the Embassy further manifested its engagement with the issues by participating. (1)
In 2019 we informed the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Dutch Embassy to Pakistan and Multi Stakeholder Initiatives (Fair Wear Foundation and the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textiles) about our proposal regarding the Pakistan Accord, also in response to our Pakistan safety report. This report was published in September 2019 by Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labor Rights Forum, Labour Education Foundation, National Trade Union Federation, and Pakistan Institute of Labour Education and Research. We wanted to build on to this work in 2020, but the Covid-19 pandemic shifted priorities in Pakistan and here in the Netherlands. While we did not achieve this outcome, it hasn’t fall off the agenda. We plan to work on this in 2021.
AGT complaint mechanism against C&A: SOMO and CCC teamed up with a labour rights partner in Myanmar to file a complaint with the AGT’s Complaints and Disputes Committee about a case involving the company C&A, a signatory to the Agreement. C&A failed to take effective action to stop a union-busting campaign by one of its suppliers, which led to the dismissal and forced departure of the union’s leaders and members. The complaint, which was a valuable learning process for the groups involved, has been taken up by the committee. This means that the committee takes the complaint seriously and will start an investigation into the case.” (1)
Less than a week after CCC and other CSOs presented their strategy proposal for the textile, garment, leather and footwear sectors to the European Commission (see Outcome Area C), the European Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, announced the commitment to introduce binding rules for companies to safeguard human rights and environmental sustainability in their supply chains. Early information indicates that the European Commission's vision is for this law to be mandatory, horizontal (covering all sectors), with sanctions and a civil liability dimension. Sector-specific guidances and/or rules might also be part of the legislation. Following this announcement, MEP Lara Wolters (PvdA) initiated a resolution on corporate due diligence and corporate accountability, to which CCC contributed by sharing expertise and providing information. (1)
SKC’s and SOMO’s report on the due diligence reporting performance of the Agreement of Sustainable Garments and Textile member brands was discussed in the Dutch parliament. Several members of Parliament (SP, PvdA, CU) tabled written questions following the report in July, leading to an official response by the AGT on the recommendations. AGT publicly recognized that the found shortcomings by SOMO and SKC should be improved within the AGT. (1)
In the Netherlands, SKC/CCC and SOMO as members of the MVO platform gave input to political parties (SP, PvdA, CU, GroenLinks) on national legislation Human Rights Due Diligence for companies’ value chains which contributed to an initiative memorandum calling on the government to introduce legislation for International Responsible Business Conduct in the Netherlands. Furthermore, the need for national mandatory human rights due diligence was adopted in several election programmes of political parties and it eventually led to an initiative legislation which these 4 political parties sent to Parliament in March 2021, introducing legislation for International Responsible Business Conduct in the Netherlands. (4)
CCC and a number of its partners, including the Trade Zones & General Services Employees Union of Sri Lanka and FSB Garteks of Indonesia, were active participants (and hosted sessions) in the OECD Forum on Due diligence in the garment and footwear sector (1); the OECD Global Forum on Responsible Business Conduct (1); a consultation with Europe-based CSOs organized by the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights (1); and the 9th Annual Forum on Business and Human Rights (1) In all these cases, CCC and its partners influenced the agenda of these forums by hosting sessions and contributing to the debate around, among other topics the need for mandatory human rights due dilliegence in supply chains.
In 2020, together with unions FNV and CNV, SKC/CCC has several times put a proposal to improve transparency on the agenda of the FWF Board of Directors meetings, which these directors indeed discussed and for which they formulated follow up action.(1)
On November 2020 a round table discussion took place in the Dutch parliament concerning Uyghur forced labor and the impact on international supply chains. This was the result of SKC and other Dutch members of the Coalition to End Forced Labor in the Uyghur Region, which provided the members of parliament with information in preparation for this conversation (1). SKC was interviewed by a number of media outlets on the Uyghur forced labour issue (Financial Times, NPO Radio 1, Volkskrant). (1) One Dutch Brand (WE Fashion) signed the Call to Action to End Forced Labour in the Uyghur Region. (1)
With financial support from CCC, a CCC partner from the UK published a report revealing shocking working conditions in the factories and workshops of Leicester, UK. Workers' reports reveal that many Leicester factories continued to operate at 100% capacity throughout the COVID-19 lockdown, primarily due to sustained orders from the biggest brand sourcing from Leicester; Boohoo. Workers who had tested positive for COVID-19 were told to continue working in factories. The reports also include allegations of modern slavery, furlough fraud and wage and benefit theft within Boohoo's Leicester supply chain. CCC’s partner launched the report on the introduction of a new lock down in Leicester and received massive media attention in the UK and beyond. (1)
As part of our PayYourWorkers campaign, SKC lobbied civil society organisations, trade unions, brands and multi-stakeholder initiatives to sign or support the Wage Assurance including the Severance Guarantee Fund.This led to e.g. CNV (1) and FNV (1) supporting the statement, FWF (1) adopting part of Wage Assurance statement and 1 brand (Kuyichi) to partly sign the Wage Assurance. (1)
CCC launched a new website to put a spotlight on the exploitation behind garment production. The poverty wages the fashion industry runs on are kept in the dark by complex and secretive supply chains. FashionChecker.org combines wage and transparency data from 108 brands to show the reality of garment production, and fill the gap between poverty and living wages, as well as male and female pay. Field research in five countries linked wage data to production locations of specific brands, showing how much workers in a specific workplace earn and which brands are linked to that production location. And 93% of surveyed brands in seven countries failed to prove that they are paying a living wage to any of their suppliers. An estimated 15 media outlets (in the Netherlands, they include NP, Fashion United, One World, website CNV-Internationaal, Website Pakhuis De Zwijger and Movies That Matter) reported on the website. (1)
CCC, through its prominent role in the Transparency Pledge coalition, continued to exert pressure on brands individually or in numbers through multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) that they are members of – to make their supply chain data public according to (or exceeding) the Transparency Pledge. At the Dutch level, SKC lobbied the Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile to improve member brands’ supply chain transparency. This led to 7 member brands committing to sign the Transparency Pledge in 2020, which they eventually signed in 2021. (7)
Outcome A: Enabling Environment
Both the rights and the legal and political spaces needed to claim and defend those rights are protected for people, communities and civil society actors, enabling them to address misconduct and grievances successfully, and promote improved corporate conduct and related governmental regulation.
n/a
1.A.a
# mechanisms put in place or improved by governments that guarantee access for civil society to democratic decision making processes related to corporate conduct, including the right to resist developments.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
Within the Dutch Covenant on Sustainable Garments and Textiles (signed by Dutch garments companies and the Dutch government) it has been agreed that companies will develop an action plan based on their own due diligence, taking into account existing research and new information to ban forced labour in their South Indian supply chain. Participating companies will within three years only buy from South Indian companies where forced labour does not exists, either through improvements at existing suppliers or by changing suppliers. This above-mentioned plan will be developed in 2017. A survey among the signatories of the Covenant showed that forced labour is high on their priority list. A few companies have indicated already that they will participate in developing the action plan. SKC/CCC will use the research data for the 'Fabrics of Slavery' paper to further identify forced labour in supply chains of Dutch brands and motivate them to participate in this working group. SKC/CCC gave input to parliamentary questions posed on 28 December 2016 based on Fabrics of Slavery, in which the need of working with civil society has been stretched. The Dutch ambassador on Business and Development Cooperation also raised the concerns on the space for civil society when visiting India.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
European Parliament adopted with overwhelming majority in April 2017 a motion demanding mandatory due diligence in the textile sector and mandatory transparency in the supply chain, now goes back to EC. CCCs in national countries lobbied their respective MEPs, CCC IO also lobbied in Brussels. (1) Within one of the thematic working groups of the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile, of which the India Committee of the Netherlands (Dutch CCC coalition member) is a signatory, a plan to tackle forced labour has been developed in October 2017 with local NGOs in South India based on (implementation of) local legislation on Worker’s Grievance Redressal Committees and workers Internal Complaints Committee on a small scale (20 spinning mills) which will be extended to 50 mills. Also a Tamil Nadu-wide helpline is established for reporting problems of workers which will be linked to the participating Covenant members. ICN as part of Dutch CCC will monitor and follow up(1)
The extension of the Bangladesh ccord (in which CCC is participating) explicitly includes strengthening of Freedom of Association, which should be taken up by the Bangladeshi government if it wants to ‘take over responsibility’ as it has stated. This should lead to tangible changes in Bangladesh government approach to FoA (1)
Both the Indian government as well as the government of the Netherlands (possibly in co-operation with other countries at the European level ) will implement binding agreements to tackle forced labour and related labour rights violations in the South Indian garment and textile industry in consultation with civil society, while also increasing space for them to resist insufficient progress
1.A.b
# effective legal and other grievance mechanisms adopted or improved by governments and corporations via which CSOs and communities can resolve grievances with governments and companies, and claim their environmental, human and worker rights.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
CCC gave extensive feedback after consultation with partner network to current complaints procedures. FWF took this up and decided to do a thorough review of related areas of work, including verification and brand assessments, to be finished in 2017. The CCC through its participation in the CoE is engaged in these policy discussions
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
ILO convened the stakeholders in the Ali Enterprises fire case; the case was also presented by CCC at a European Parliament hearing, leading to finally resolving the case in late 2017/early 2018. This compensation scheme, together with Rana Plaza Arrangement and the Tazreen case compensation, is now seen as the model on which national employment injury schemes should be based, by ILO and others. (1) SKC, in its role of Committee of Experts (CoE) member, actively participated in the discussion to improve the Fair Wear Foundation's complaint mechanism. CCC consulted partner organizations who were working on cases of labour rights violations in factories supplying Fair Wear Foundation member brands, to be able to provide feedback to FWF based on the experiences of these organizations. Main suggestions made by CCC were inserted into the new policy document and decided upon by the FWF board (1)
A 'bridging solution' is formed with the Bangladesh Government and ILO taking active steps to process any recent and future compensation cases until the permanent solution of National Employment Injury Insurance (EII) Scheme and National Laws are in place (1), and also the process of setting up the Employment Injury Insurance (EII) Scheme is expedited as result of lobby and pressure. (1)
In 2016 FWF is revising its complaints procedure after pressure and lobby CCC based on experiences obtained through Urgent Appeals mechanism on complainants satisfaction and effectiveness to address grievances (1)
The Fair Wear Foundation (a Multi Stakeholder Initiative that works with member brands) improves their auditing and remedy process through dialogue and critique from CCC on concrete cases.
With inputs from LLMIC member organisations CCC participated in a taskforce on social auditing resulting in Fair Wear Foundation adopting a holistic approach to remediation by using different tools such as country studies, social audits, complaints handling, worker education programs in a more coherent and effective way. Further suggestions made by this taskforce include increased transparency and access of worker to information and the need for worker involvement in remediation processes. [1] CCC took part in the workshop co-organised by Fair Wear Foundation during the OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment and Footwear Sector to explore possibilities for cooperation between different MSI’s on grievances. Based on its own experience and experiences from other grievances mechanism primarily in LLMIC countries such as Bangladesh, Indonesia, Myanmar, etc, CCC developed some preconditions in order to make such a collaboration credible and effective. This process is on-going through its ‘regular’ channels (in Committee of Experts and board meetings). [1] The broad movement for more supply chain transparency, in which CCC is one of the most prominent actors that campaigned and lobbied brands, has now led to the Open Apparel Registry (whose Board CCC is a member of). This is an open source tool which maps garment facilities worldwide and assigns a unique ID number to each of them. This makes it much easier to identify factories, which will simplify the search for the responsible parties in cases of worker rights violations. Very soon after its launch, it had already over 9,000 factories listed, with good prospects of getting many more. The map and search functions can be used to search for factories. You can also see the origin of the data, such as a specific supplier list. [1] A long term CCC-partner has published a new research tool that helps workers, unions, and labour and human rights organizations to link apparel brands that source from Central America and Mexico to the companies that own them. This should help determine what leverage points to use to motivate these companies to remediate worker rights violations in their wholly-owned and supplier factories. [1]
Outcome E: Policies Changed
These include improved government and corporate policies on corporate accountability, including transparency and safeguards policies, conflict resolution mechanisms, and policies promoting social justice, decent work and sustainability.
n/a
n/a
1.E.a
# mechanisms, policies and regulations improved or introduced by national, regional and international government bodies to ensure companies promote more sustainable practices and are held accountable for respecting human rights and the environment and providing adequate remedy to victims of adverse impacts.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
(0)French legislative result achieved in 2017, so it will be part of next years' reporting. (1) The German CCC actively lobbied and joined the German Textile Alliance, and works on several implementation projects (including in Tamil Nadu). They also managed to get stronger transparency requirements and the publication of due diligence reports included as mandatory conditions for brands to join the bundnis. CCC contribution was to get the policies on transparency accepted at the german budnis, which is a partnership of the german government, german companies and german TUs and CSO. As a membership condition of the bundnis companies HAVE to publish due diligence reports, which then will get reviewed, so that also is a policy change at the level of the company. Our contribution at IO was to provide inputs, documents, pressure on brands, to the german ccc who negotiated.(0)French legislative result achieved in 2017, so it will be part of next years' reporting. (1) The German CCC actively lobbied and joined the German Textile Alliance, and works on several implementation projects (including in Tamil Nadu). They also managed to get stronger transparency requirements and the publication of due diligence reports included as mandatory conditions for brands to join the bundnis. CCC contribution was to get the policies on transparency accepted at the german budnis, which is a partnership of the german government, german companies and german TUs and CSO. As a membership condition of the bundnis companies HAVE to publish due diligence reports, which then will get reviewed, so that also is a policy change at the level of the company. Our contribution at IO was to provide inputs, documents, pressure on brands, to the german ccc who negotiated.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
French "Duty of vigilence law" was supported, and defended against following corporate backlash by sending public support letter and lobby, and CCC assessed impact for our purposes. French CCC played pivotal role in the eventual adoption of the law, supported by CCC IO (1) No progress on Czech due diligence UNGP law, so target not met there.
– follow up on EU Flagship & European Parliament resolutions to increase transparency in supply chain; In 2018 the EP will hopefully adopt a resolution to make EU import data public. - In order to make a case for stronger commitments towards paying a living wage by Dutch brands which signed the Dutch agreement on Sustainable garments and textile, a legal complaint will be filed at either the NCP or the complaint mechanism of the agreement on not paying a living wage in 10 factories in India. the mechanism that is aimed for is "a stronger sustainable garment and textiles Agreement".
French Legislative proposal parent company duty to care(1),Textile Alliance– Germany (1),UNGP implementation through NAP – Czech Republic, IMVO toezichthouder (1)
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
The International Labour Organization’s annual Conference made history in 2019 by adopting the Convention and accompanying Recommendation to combat violence and harassment in the world of work. A number of CCC members, including the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, International Labor Rights Forum and more campaigned and lobbied over many years into making this happen. Two CCC member organisations have presented a roadmap for fast fashion brands on promoting women's leadership and implementing the historic convention. [1] As member of the MVO platform, CCC actively contributed to the realisation of the Dutch Child Labour Due Diligence law by providing input to Members of the Senate of the Dutch Parliament. [1]
1.E.b
# policies improved or introduced by companies on transparency and safeguards, conflict resolution mechanisms, and policies promoting social justice, decent work and sustainability.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
No results yet
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
Three more brands signed up to the Indonesia FoA protocol and adapted their internal policies accordingly: Haglöfs, Kjus and SuitSupply (Dutch). (3)
– inclusion of boiler safety into the Bangladesh Accord since boiler explosions are a frequent cause of fatal incidents and are not currently covered under inspection regimes (1) – use the reference document on critique of social auditing (finalized Q4 2017) to move brands from ‘audit & ignore’ to ‘inspect and remedy’. (1) – improvement in the Indonesia FoA Protocol and more brands, FWF, and other MSIs sign on to the improved second Indonesia FoA Protocol (1)
More companies sign FoA protocol Indonesia (2),companies that will release supplier lists/increase transparency supply chains (8), companies that adopt meaningful living wage policies (2)
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
1. One (Dutch) target brand publicly supports the development of the Pakistan Safety Agreement and signs on when ready as a result of SKC's lobby and advocacy work on brands in regard to this topic. (1) 2. One (Dutch) target brand publicly supports the development of a living wage Enforceable Brand Agreement (EBA) and signs on when ready (1). SKC achieves this through joining the international CCC campaign (in which a variety of LLMIC partners are represented) in targeting brands, joining an international public launch of the living wage EBA and through writing a position paper on the matter. 3. CCC's work in the Transparency Pledge coalition includes contributing to an update of the report, putting pressure on brands and others to sign the Pledge. Several more brands, online retailers and MSIs start publishing their supply chain data according to (or exceeding) the Transparency Pledge (1) We expect (3) more Dutch brands to sign the Pledge, and both the Fair Wear Foundation and the Dutch Covenant (both of which are MSIs that have many brands in their membership) will adopt the policy to make Pledge adherence a condition for membership in future years (2) 4. One or more brands and MSIs (of which brands are a part) sign the Indonesia Freedom of Association Protocol as a result of CCC lobby(1)
The CCC network’s lobby work with Fair Wear Foundation and with AGT to make the Transparency Pledge a condition for its member brands resulted in a strengthened transparency policy including amongst others a factory list supplying FWF member brands publicly available through a search function on the website [1]. At the AGT stakeholder day, eight Dutch brands [8] signed the Transparency Pledge, promising to disclose their supply chains along the transparency pledge standard, all members of the Dutch Agreement for Sustainable Textile and Garments. [8] Through its engagement in the Committee of Experts, CCC lobbied the Fair Wear Foundation (1) to make signing the Bangladesh Accord a condition for its member brands. Even though signing the Bangladesh Accord is part of Fair Wear’s enhanced monitoring policy for Bangladesh that member brands need to follow, it is not mandatory. However, FWF member brands sourcing from Bangladesh who repeatedly do not comply to this requirement are sanctioned and will go to the “needs improvement” category that will lead to termination in case of no betterment. Almost all AGT (1) member brands signed the Bangladesh Accord as a result of strengthened yearly assessment of brands by the Covenant in regard to this topic. Neither of the MSI’s made it mandatory to their brands. [2]
CCC, through its prominent role in the Transparency Pledge coalition, continued to exert pressure on brands individually or in numbers through multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) that they are members of – to make their supply chain data public according to (or exceeding) the Transparency Pledge. Following our #Go Transparent campaign, the first of the five target brands has signed the Transparency Pledge. (1)
Outcome B: Capacities Strengthened
Increased capacity of civil society actors to research, network and advocate in relation to the conduct of corporations.
n/a
1.B
# CSOs in LLMICs that lobby and advocate for responsible corporate conduct based on increased skills, knowledge or network contacts.
All baselines are set at 0
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
Asian partner organisations and trade unions participated in the Lessons Learned Meeting (LLM) in Southeast Asia in March 2016 and shared their experience, knowledge in campaigning, lobbying and legal action for access to compensation to the major factory tragedies and other safety incidents. Also LLM helped to develop the knowledge and specificity of compensation schemes and identified the areas of further action, improvements and lessons for future cases. 23 CSOs in Asia and Eastern Europe and CCC IO organised together Urgent Appeal participatory workshops, thus increasing their capacities and working on further improving their joint strategising and lobbying. 6 CSOs in a South East Asian country increased their ability to communicate and strategise online safetly, without the threat of external unwanted surveillance or interference. Four federations in another South East Asian country are better equipped now to bargain at factory level, as well as to identify and tackle occupational health and safety issues.Asian partner organisations and trade unions participated in the Lessons Learned Meeting (LLM) in Southeast Asia in March 2016 and shared their experience, knowledge in campaigning, lobbying and legal action for access to compensation to the major factory tragedies and other safety incidents. Also LLM helped to develop the knowledge and specificity of compensation schemes and identified the areas of further action, improvements and lessons for future cases. 23 CSOs in Asia and Eastern Europe and CCC IO organised together Urgent Appeal participatory workshops, thus increasing their capacities and working on further improving their joint strategising and lobbying. 6 CSOs in a South East Asian country increased their ability to communicate and strategise online safetly, without the threat of external unwanted surveillance or interference. Four federations in another South East Asian country are better equipped now to bargain at factory level, as well as to identify and tackle occupational health and safety issues.Asian partner organisations and trade unions participated in the Lessons Learned Meeting (LLM) in Southeast Asia in March 2016 and shared their experience, knowledge in campaigning, lobbying and legal action for access to compensation to the major factory tragedies and other safety incidents. Also LLM helped to develop the knowledge and specificity of compensation schemes and identified the areas of further action, improvements and lessons for future cases. 23 CSOs in Asia and Eastern Europe and CCC IO organised together Urgent Appeal participatory workshops, thus increasing their capacities and working on further improving their joint strategising and lobbying. 6 CSOs in a South East Asian country increased their ability to communicate and strategise online safetly, without the threat of external unwanted surveillance or interference. Four federations in another South East Asian country are better equipped now to bargain at factory level, as well as to identify and tackle occupational health and safety issues.Asian partner organisations and trade unions participated in the Lessons Learned Meeting (LLM) in Southeast Asia in March 2016 and shared their experience, knowledge in campaigning, lobbying and legal action for access to compensation to the major factory tragedies and other safety incidents. Also LLM helped to develop the knowledge and specificity of compensation schemes and identified the areas of further action, improvements and lessons for future cases. 23 CSOs in Asia and Eastern Europe and CCC IO organised together Urgent Appeal participatory workshops, thus increasing their capacities and working on further improving their joint strategising and lobbying. 6 CSOs in a South East Asian country increased their ability to communicate and strategise online safetly, without the threat of external unwanted surveillance or interference. Four federations in another South East Asian country are better equipped now to bargain at factory level, as well as to identify and tackle occupational health and safety issues.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
NOTE: some organizations took part in multiple initiatives. Discarding this double count, the overall count is 29. Urgent Appeal training in Bangalore, 19 participants from (7) organizations that have more knowledge on how to bring cases to the CCC UA system.The training has provided parters with the knowledge and skills to get more involved in Urgent Appeal work. This has increased their access to the UAC Network and, implicitly, to the key people and organisations who have the leverage needed to negotiate with the brands so that their corporate conduct improves. The trainings have also diversified the ways in which the partners lobby and advocate (moving beyond to local courts and Labor commission and tapping into the international arena), which can be practically seen in their case work Implemented organisational change process for a partner organisation in Bangladesh (1), making the organization functional and strong again. Almost 500 women increased their capacity to work on improving the labour rights of their communities and knowledge to participate in grievance handling, particularly via enforceable agreements. At the beginning of 2017, CCC in collaboration with (2) Pakistani partners, worked together with survivors of the Ali Enterprise fire on establishing the National Oversight Committee for Ali enterprises compensation and proposal for the calculation of claims. (3) Developed the capacity for (16) organizations in digital security through training during South Asia meeting. They can now communicate with far less risk of government interference and repression. Developed the capacity of (4) organisations (plus 2 that already took the English-language one mentioned above, but now with interpreter into Sinhalese for wider reach in their rank-and-file) in Sri Lanka on Digital security and communication through a National training. They can now communicate with far less risk of government interference and repression. NOTE: THE FOLLOWING WERE PARTLY FUNDED BY PARTNERSHIP WITH MAMA CASH, THE WOMEN POWER FASHION PROGRAMME * Supported Training of union leaders in Bangladesh for (3) federations: - training on Occupational Health & Safety. Outcomes: participants better equipped while forming OHS committees. They are monitor factories, giving advice on improving situation, connecting OHS committees to local unions. (600 ppts - 240 female) - training on collective bargaining - (280 ppts - 135 female) - better campaiging for wage increase (ppts say they can now better write press release, rallies, skillsharing) - (1200 ppts) * Similar OHS training in Sri Lanka with (1) partner, 300 women workers are more aware about safety issues, the organization feels better equipped to deal with them. * Safety booklet developed with (1) partner in Pakistan, distributed to 600 workers. Contains safety tips, but also union contacts and organizing toolkit which has been used by recipients to start organizing in new factories. * Sexual harassment (genderbased violence in the workplace) manual developed with (1) Indian union, distributed to 1000 workers, with direct training to 300 women workers, who are now tackling gender violence when they encounter it. * Labour rights-focused newsletter for EPZ workers in Sri Lanka, strengthening (1) partner's capacity to organize these hard-to-reach workers. 2000 workers reached per month, the salary increase for 2017 was not provided by some factories; the newsletter led to awareness and protests by workers to get their rightful increase. (1) * Unnamed union India: 75 women workers gained skills and knowledge on how to extend and strengthen the union, increase membership, reach new factories (1)
– An Urgent Appeals Global Strategising and capacity building meeting will be held January 2018. It will have experience exchange between CSOs, joint strategy building on 3 main topics (Gender-based workplace discrimination, Freedom of Association, Factory Closures) which should directly lead to more focused campaigning in UA cases. (strengthened capacities of 40 participating CSOs) – The UAC Manual and training materials will be updated and partly re-written; to account for new legal, societal and political challenges. A training of the manual and its practical uses will be provided in Q3. Changes include a more global focus, where there are countries that are simultaneously consumers and producers (e.g. Eastern Europe and Black Sea regions), and direct Region-to-Region campaigning where CSOs in e.g. Cambodia can campaign with CCC partners in factory-owning and brand-basing countries like Japan and Korea. (15 participating CSOs) Follow up trainings with these new materials by Country Focal Points in two countries (15 participating CSOs) – The Urgent Appeal team will be responsible for explicitly addressing gender sensitive translations and interpretation, and be providing that expertise to the partner network. (3 Regional Coordinating bodies will dissipate to other partners) – “Organised by women” project, focused on women organisers and Freedom of Association in several producing countries. This includes storytelling and experience exchange. Aim is to directly encourage and empower women organisers to network, and to reach more influental positions in their unions (10 CSOs) – strengthening Europe South/East integration into the network, by inclusion into Regional Meetings and various thematic work (Living Wage, Gender). This includes CSO’s in Georgia, Moldova, Ukraine (4) – Regional development (network meetings, security training) and capacity building for the South Asia and South East Asia regions (40 CSOs) – Strengthening links between CSO’s in the South Asia/South East Asia regions with the East Asia region (which consists of non-LLMIC countries, but where factory ownership and brand ownership is increasingly concentrated. Therefore campaign strength against brands and factory owners in East Asia is vital for lobby & advocacy for the LLMIC CSOs) (20). – communication guidelines, resource toolkits and training to enhance the campaigning skills of the network partners. Integrate their social media presences into the global CCC website and social media presences to enhance reach and representation. (30) – baseline study on preventive Occupation Health and Safety (OHS) in South Asian countries. lobby and campaign for OHS laws and preventive mechanisms developed {in one South Asian country}. (1) NOTE: MANY OF THE CSO’s overlap here, the total estimate of CSOs in LLMICs reached is therefore not the sum of all participants in the activities.
Capacities of 30 partner CSOs will be strengthened through knowledge sharing, reflections on periodic lessons and building coalition.
N/A. Targets set for the combined periods 2016 and 2017 are included in "Period 2016-2017". Results achieved in the period 2016-2017 are reported under "Period 2016" and "Period 2017"
1. During the OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment Sector, CCC will host sessions with (3-5) CSO partners from LLMICs. The lobby and advocacy of these partners is strengthened by reaching new audiences and improved networking. The partners are chosen on their expertise, and voice their priorities in this international setting where policy-makers, brands and civil society meet. 2. CCC will host sessions together with (2-4) CSO partners from LLMICs at the OECD Forum on Responsible Business Conduct. The lobby and advocacy of these partners is strengthened by reaching new audiences and improved networking. The partners are chosen on their expertise, and voice their priorities in this international setting where policy-makers, brands and civil society meet. 3. CSOs in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine (4) strengthen their lobby and advocacy by participating in the CCC European Production Focused Subgroup. There will be several regional meetings, and thematic work on wages and gender. With organisational, financial and strategic support of CCC these CSOs can learn from one another and from partners in neighboring countries within the region with a better developed civil society, and use their improved capacity (alliance building, strategic knowledge on wages and wage negotiations) to build stronger alliances in their own countries, through which they will actively advocate for living wages. 4. Several CSOs in CCC’s network in the South Asia and South East Asia regions strengthen their campaigning on wages, fair contracts and safe workplaces by participating in CCC regional network meetings, trainings, thematic workgroups (40 CSOs). CCC provides organisational, strategic and logistical support. 5. CCC will strengthen links between CSOs in the South Asia/South East Asia region and the East Asia region. This region consists of non-LLMIC countries, in which factory ownership and brand ownership is increasingly concentrated. The LLMIC CSOs therefore need improved contacts with East Asia CSOs so their lobby and advocacy can be heard and amplified in these consumer and brand-ownership countries. They will use the Tokyo 2020 Olympic campaign planning as vehicle to improve advocacy on wages and fair contracts. This concerns 20 CSOs from LLMIC countries (Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, Philippines). 6. Approximately (6) CSOs in the Meso American region including Honduras, Nicaragua, Haiti will implement more effective campaigns as a result of improved network contacts with CCC and CCC's North American partners (most brands producing in Meso America have ownership in the USA). CCC supports this capacity development with a possible regional meeting and improved access to internal knowledge. 7. Due to increased organisational capacity, one country-wide union and several factory level unions in Bangladesh will be able to better organize their campaigning. CCC offers support in organising methods and practices. (1) 8. CCC (after having been concretely asked to do this by LLMIC CSOs) provides campaign and media training to organisations in the network, specifically to campaign on precarious work and short term contracts. The CSOs' aim is to maximize the multi-media impact of workers’ struggles including through social networks. Special emphasis will be put on where unwanted gender bias can be introduced, for instance when “worker” is translated as a gendered term. The participating CSOs will directly apply their increased capacity in their social media campaigning (40 CSOs). 9. NGOs and labour unions in India will increase their understanding of developments in regard to MSIs related to the garment sector in European countries such as the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textiles and on possibilities for filing complaints with these initiatives and on brand mobilising in order to get access to remedy. This is achieved by regular communication and exchange between the India Committee of the Netherlands and Indian unions and NGOs. The NGOs and labour unions will apply their improved knowledge and understanding in advocacy for remedy and possibly in filing complaints. 10. When CSOs are under urgent repression their resilience is strengthened (and thus their lobby and advocacy continues) by the availability of CCC's Urgent Appeal Emergency Fund; on average it supports (3) CSOs when urgent help is required (legal, travel, other unexpected repression-avoidance).
In Bangladesh, more than 30 factories had filed criminal charges against workers who peacefully protested their poverty wages in the start of the year. After intense campaigning towards brands sourcing from these factories, information gathering and cross-checking, brand identification, and direct worker support by CCC and its partners (3 Bangladeshi organizations and organizations in the US & Europe), five charges were dropped by the end of 2019. [3] 2 CSOs in Moldova and Ukraine strengthened their lobby and advocacy capacities by participating in the CCC European Production Focused Subgroup. There were two meetings which included thematic work on wages and gender. With organisational, financial and strategic support from CCC, they learned from each other and from partners in neighbouring countries and used their improved capacity (alliance building, strategic knowledge on wages and wage negotiations) to build stronger alliances in their own countries, through which they will actively advocate for living wages. [2] In June 2019, in Chiangmai (Thailand), 28 organisations (unions and NGOs) participated in the South East Asia regional CCC network meeting and discussed the current trends in the RMG sector and gave their input to prepare the new Global Strategic Frame Work of CCC. In this meeting they also discussed Enforcable Wage Agreement, the research findings from 4 countries (Myanmar, Indonesia, Cambodia and Philippines) on low wages, FOA problems, Union registration, and gender related issues. They used this research to do a brand analysis focusing on wages, safety and employment relations, and they started to develop Tokyo 2020 Olympic campaign plan. They also discussed the lessons learned on CCC campaign in the region to build power to strategize and to lobby brands. CCC provided financial and strategic support to the South East Asia Regional Coalition for this meeting to take place. [28] 25 CSOs in South Asia participated in the regional CCC network meeting in September to discuss and develop strategies on living wage and Safety programmes, and developed a plan to pressure their governments and employers to improve working conditions. They discussed the current trends in the RMG and sportswear sector and gave input for the preparation of a new Global Strategic Framework for CCC. CCC South Asia used this meeting furthermore to improve its regional coordination for further follow up of the implementation of the plan and better communication between members and partners in the region. CCC provided financial and strategic support to the South East Asia Regional Coalition for this meeting to take place. [25] In September 2019, in Kathmandu (Nepal) around 21 trade unions from production countries (from South Asia, Eastern Europe and South East Asia) gathered and discussed Living Wage, the Enforceable Wage Agreement (EWA) in a meeting organized by the CCC network learning from the Lesotho Agreements to Combat Gender-based Violence and from the Harassment in Lesotho’s Garment Industry, they discussed a negotiation strategy for EWA and they developed campaign strategies. As a result of this meeting unions jointly sent a letter to the Global Unions in favour of a global industrial enforceable and binding collective bargaining agreement for payment of living wages to garment production workers. [14] CCC South East Asia Coalition and East Asia Coalition have established collaboration on concrete cases which started with the Jaba Garmindo workers struggle in Indonesia, which is supported by unions and NGOs in the East Asia region. Now both regions are working together to develop the Tokyo 2020 Olympic campaign. CCC has provided coordination and financial support. [2] Nike is retreating its production from South Korean factories in Indonesia and the workers are affected by this. Indonesian Union and CSOs worked together with Korean CSOs on severance payment for the workers. This is also strengthening the collaboration between the two regions. [5] CCC offered financial and strategic support to a union federation in Bangladesh to increase the capacity and skills on communication to their members and outside. This has resulted in better organising and messaging on issues that are on the ground, such as negotiations and bargaining with factory owners. [1] In 2019 CCC Netherlands member Arisa (former India Committee of the Netherlands) presented the functioning of the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textiles (AGT) to 6 Indian NGOs and labour unions in National Capital Region, Bangalore and Tamil Nadu. Arisa supported one NGO (1) in raising an issue with the AGT and followed-up a previous complaints about Bangalore. The processes are pending. Arisa is in contact with brands about the issues/ complaints. Furthermore, Arisa supported one trade union (1) to get directly in touch with AGT member brands who are sourcing from a particular factory in Bangalore (where the labour union identified violations). [2] In April 2019 CCC supported Pakistan unions and NGOs to organise a consultation to discuss and reach a consensus on the Pakistan Accord. Bangladesh Accord staff visited four CCC member organisations in Pakistan in September 2019 and explained the Bangladesh Accord and the changes it made to the industry in preventing factory incidents. CCC together with Pakistan unions and NGOs, ILRF and WRC, published a Pakistan Safety report, “PAKISTAN S GARMENT WORKERS NEED A SAFETY ACCORD”. Through all these efforts, Pakistan Unions and NGOs capacities have been strengthened and they have reached out to other stakeholders in the industry including employers, the labour ministry and labour department in Sindh Province. [4] During the OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment Sector, CCC hosted sessions with four CSO partners from LLMICs. The lobby and advocacy of these partners was strengthened by reaching new audiences and improved networking. The partners voiced their priorities in this international setting where national and transnational policy-makers, brands and civil society meet. [4] CCC hosted sessions together with three CSO partners from LLMICs at the OECD Forum on Responsible Business Conduct. The lobby and advocacy of these partners was strengthened by reaching new audiences and improved networking. The partners voiced their priorities in this international setting where national and transnational policy-makers, brands and civil society meet. [3]
In 2020, COVID-19 caused havoc in the global garment industry and consequently drastically shifted CCC priorities. Next to the inevitable disruption in production, which led to mass scale lay-offs, there were repeated cases of unpaid severance, union busting and increasing pressure on freedom of association. As a result, we had to drop certain planned outcomes because Covid had suddenly shifted priorities. These include: Research promoting health and safety in India and Sri Lanka; Strengthening the capacity of partners in India to lobby and advocate to brands sourcing from and employers in India for credible and transparent preventive safety mechanisms. (0)
Throughout the year, CCC provided strategic support, shared knowledge and enhanced the capacity of 4 Pakistan partners (trade unions and CSOs) on building consensus for the Pakistan Accord proposal and improve their lobbying and advocacy skills to negotiate and pressure brands into commit for the Pakistan Accord. As a result, these partners better succeeded in drawing policymakers’ and factory owners’ attention to this proposal. (4)
The CCC Global Forum was planned to take place in June 2020 in Indonesia, but the pandemic made that impossible. Instead CCC organised an online version of the forum, which took place in the last few months of the year (and continued into 2021). It included the creation of a number of trainings (to be delivered in 2021) that address many of the stated needs of our partners such as improved public outreach methods, fundraising, better monitoring and evaluation processes etc, as well as a series of podcasts for the CCC network on a range of topics such as lobbying for mandatory human rights due diligence, wages, just transition and responding to the COVID crisis. The highlight was the completion - after an impressive process of wide participatory consultation among the whole CCC network – of our new 5-year Global Strategic Framework (GSF). This includes a comprehensive analysis of the current state of the global garment industry (including future trends) and a detailed roadmap of how CCC partner organisations – individually and collectively – will fight in the coming years for the change we want. The GSF focuses on seven Domains of Change (including Freedom of Association, Living Wages, Worker Safety and Health, Legislation, Regulation, and Binding Mechanisms for Corporate Accountability, and Building Leverage as a network) and details specific Pathways to Change with activities, results and indicators of success. All CCC organisations will receive support for creating operational plans in order to put the GSF in practice. All the above enhanced the capacity of up to 66 organisations from LLMIC countries and supported them in their advocacy for the rights of garment workers. (64)
CCC used the platform of OECD Forums to strengthen the lobby and advocacy capacity of its partners by reaching new audiences and improved networking. Partners are chosen on their expertise, and voice their priorities in this international setting where policy-makers, brands and civil society meet. At the OECD Forum on Due diligence in the garment and footwear sector in February, several CCC members were present and were able to present their views on open data & transparency in the apparel sector, as well as the shortcomings of multi-stakeholder initiatives in Europe and the need for mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence legislation. In May, at the OECD Global Forum on Responsible Business Conduct, a representative of a Sri Lankan trade union spoke on the impact of the COVID crisis on garment workers and highlighted abuses of workers’ rights. (2)
CSOs in Georgia (2) and Moldova (1) strengthened their lobby and advocacy capacity by participating in the CCC European Production Focused Group (EPFG), a subgroup of the CCC European coalition connecting CSOs and trade unions in European production countries. Two online regional meetings took place (in June and October), focusing on wages and the response to the COVID crisis. With financial and strategic support of CCC, these CSOs learned from one another and from partners in neighbouring countries within the region with a better developed civil society, and used their improved capacity (alliance building, strategic knowledge on wages and wage negotiations) to build stronger alliances in their own countries, through which they will actively advocate brands, employers and their governments (3)
Through financial support, sharing knowledge and better information management, CCC strengthened the work of Country Focal Points in a number of Asian countries with some of the highest garment production (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) . The Country Focal Points are assigned persons in the CCC network whose role includes following closely developments in the country, acting as link between organisations, alerting them to opportunities and risks etc. As a result, there was enhanced consultation with member and partner organisations in those countries, as well as widening of knowledge and information channels on issues and policy developments, which in turn enhanced their capacity to jointly strategise, campaign and lobby for improvements in wages, workers safety and freedom of association. The capacity of 12 CSOs in which the Country Focal Points are active was strengthened and they were able to use their strengthened capacity directly in their advocacy efforts. (12)
In order to mitigate some of the devastating effects of the pandemic on garment workers, CCC provided expertise, logistical and financial support to 22 partners from LLMICs countries for the most part of the second half of the year, in order for them to provide direct relief to workers, including migrants and home-based workers, who were struggling to make ends meet in lock down or after having lost their jobs. These partners not only provided direct emergency support to workers, such as food, medical supplies and protective materials, but were also enabled to provide legal support around social security, termination payment, and the right to safe work, and generally advocate against workers’ rights violations during the pandemic. (22)
In January, CCC partners Cividep India and FEMNET Germany organised a two-day workshop in Bangalore on gender-based violence in India’s garment sector. Representatives from labour unions, civil society organisations, multi-stakeholder initiatives, and research and advocacy institutions participated with the aim to formulate recommendations to the German Textile Partnership in its ongoing negotiations with German brands to address issues of gender-based violence and harassment in their supply chains. (6)
The numbers indicated above include duplicates (i.e. organisations having their capacity strengthened in more than one of the “mechanisms” described here).
NL-KVK-41210820-FGG3
Clean Clothes Campaign
Fair, Green and Global Programme
The Fair, Green and Global Alliance (FGG) aims to increase the power and decision-making influence of organised, mobilised and informed civil society, especially women, to advance fair and green trade and value chains. FGG believes that poverty, inequality and exclusion are caused by power asymmetries. We see the unprecedented power of capital over people and planet as the primary obstacle impeding realisation of fair and green trade and value chains. The FGG programme focuses on recalibrating power within the global architecture of trade and value chains by amplifying the voices of targeted rights-holders – small producers and traders, workers, fishers, rural and Indigenous peoples, religious and ethnic minorities, and migrants, especially the women and youth among them – who are practising, claiming or defending human rights and fair and green economic practices, and/or whose rights are being ignored, threatened or violated by corporations and/or governments. We aim to transform social relations so that these rights-holders’ voices are heard and heeded. FGG’s eight members (ActionAid, Both ENDS, Clean Clothes Campaign, IT for Change, Milieudefensie/Friends of the Earth International/Friends of the Earth Europe, Samdhana Institute, SOMO and the Transnational Institute) cooperate with some 1000+ partners and allies in our many worldwide networks to strengthen collective capacities to advance a common vision of fair and green trade and value chains.
Both ENDS
Clean Clothes Campaign
Clean Clothes Campaign
Clean Clothes Campaign
info@cleanclothes.org
http://cleanclothes.org/
1562208.3
1702108.1
117001
Disbursement to partners
1702108
Total 2022 funds for CCC
1521905
Actual expenditures for 2022
1299212
1291832
1328426
Total expenditures for 2021
937325
First instalment of 2021 funds for CCC
624884
Second instalment of 2021 funds for CCC
83424
7870864
B
agenda-setting, momentum-building and increased support
4x
# of instances in which the recommendation a key actor puts on its agenda aims to contribute to expanding/defending civic space
See info on Myanmar webinar above
The launch of an EU formal investigation on Myanmar’s EBA status (as explained under 4). The aim is to put pressure on Myanmar’s military regime to reduce human rights violations
Indicated with x under 4
5 media outlets amplify the position of CCC and its partners in countries where human and labour rights violations are prevalent (e.g. the extreme repression of labour organising and freedom of association by the military regime in Myanmar, and countering the impact of the National Security Law on freedom of expression and the overall functioning of civil society in Hong Kong).
A
strengthened capacities
1
# of CSOs included in the FGG programme
We count here all CCC partners from LLMUMICs.
We count here all CCC members and partners from LLUMICs.
We count here all CCC members and partners from LLUMICs.
A
strengthened capacities
2x
# targeted civil society actors with strengthened capacities contributing to and/or relevant for lobby and advocacy aiming at expanding/defending civic space
The situation regarding human and labour rights in Myanmar has continued to deteriorate since the military junta coup in February 2021. The military has brutally violated human rights and, in their attempt to wipe out opposition, targeted workers, activists, labour rights organisations and trade unionists. As a result, Clean Clothes Campaign members in Myanmar were forced into hiding. We stayed in close contact with our 10 Myanmar partner organisations, facilitating secure communication and broadcasting to the world information about the situation in the country and the demands of the Myanmar labour movement. We also provided financial support, engaged in numerous acts of solidarity, campaigned for the release of political prisoners and continued to consult on the possibility to leverage the country’s preferential trading regime with the EU (Anything But Arms).
In general, an increasing number of CCC members have to operate under restrictive or repressive circumstances, including threatened legal status, prosecutions, arrests etc. CCC will provide digital security trainings to 20 organisations from South and South East Asia that will enhance use of secure communication (tools and platforms) and enable them to develop and/or maintain an active security policy. In specific, the situation regarding human and labour rights in Myanmar has continued to deteriorate since the military junta coup in February. The military has brutally violated human rights and, in their attempt to wipe out opposition, targeted workers, activists, labour rights organisations and trade unionists. As a result, Clean Clothes Campaign members in Myanmar have been forced into hiding. We will stay in close contact with our 10 Myanmar member organisations, facilitating secure communication and broadcasting to the world information about the situation in the country and the demands of the Myanmar labour movement.
A special theme for CCC is that of shrinking civic space. An increasing number of CCC members in Asia have to operate under restrictive or repressive circumstances, including threatened legal status, prosecutions, arrests etc. At the same time, human and labour rights violations remain prevalent, freedom of association restricted, and access to remedy curtailed. CCC continued to support and amplify the voices of the labour movement in the Philippines, Cambodia and Sri Lanka (5).
The situation regarding human and labour rights in Myanmar has continued to deteriorate since the military junta coup in February 2021. The military has brutally violated human rights and, in their attempt to wipe out opposition, targeted workers, activists, labour rights organisations and trade unionists. As a result, Clean Clothes Campaign members in Myanmar have been forced into hiding or to operate from neighbouring countries. Throughout 2022 CCC remained in close contact with our Myanmar partner organisations, facilitating secure communication and broadcasting to the world information about the situation in the country and the demands of the Myanmar labour movement. We also continued to provide financial support, engage in acts of solidarity, work with partners to push garment brands sourcing in the country to provide remedy in labour rights violations in their supply chain, and provided detailed guidelines for responsible conduct for garments brand that either choose to continue sourcing from Myanmar or decide to stop doing so. (10).
In general, an increasing number of CCC members in Asia have to operate under restrictive or repressive circumstances, including threatened legal status, prosecutions, arrests etc. At the same time, human and labour rights violations remain prevalent, freedom of association restricted, and access to remedy curtailed. CCC will continue to support and amplify the voices of the labour movement in those countries (e.g. the Philippines, Cambodia and Sri Lanka). In particular, the situation regarding human and labour rights in Myanmar has continued to deteriorate since the military junta coup in February 2021. The military has brutally violated human rights and, in their attempt to wipe out opposition, targeted workers, activists, labour rights organisations and trade unionists. As a result, Clean Clothes Campaign members in Myanmar were forced into hiding or to operate from neighbouring countries. CCC will provide or finance digital security trainings to organisations from South and South East Asia that will enhance use of secure communication (tools and platforms) and enable them to develop and/or maintain an active security policy. We will remain in close contact with our Myanmar partner organisations, facilitating secure communication and broadcasting to the world information about the situation in the country and the demands of the Myanmar labour movement. We will also provide financial support, engage in acts of solidarity, and advocate for the release of political prisoners.
A
strengthened capacities
2g
# targeted civil society actors with strengthened capacities relevant to advance gender justice
CCC organised an online event titled "Who’s your feminism for? Gender & discrimination in the global fashion industry". Newly produced clothes and shoes have passed the hands of many women before consumers find them in stores. Most of these women face exploitation and a hostile working environment due to discrimination, disrespect and abuse within garment factories. Participants, including from 4 CCC partners in South Asia, heard from the women themselves, what it means to work in the garment sector, what it means to face discrimination and harassment in the factories, but also how women organise themselves to change the situation.
CCC disseminated the formal launch – by our partner Migrant Forum Asia and the Cross-Regional Center for Refugees and Migrants – of the Migrant Women Forum (MWF), a loose network that seeks to work specifically on the issues of women, gender, and migration, mainly in this particular corridor of Asia and the Middle East. The launch webinar, where 2 CCC partners from the Philippines participated, assessed how COVID 19 is affecting women migrant workers, explored COVID-19-related developments in the Asia-Middle East corridor, and identified support and services that are in place.
With specific regard to gender justice, CCC members from South Asia and South-East Asia met face-to-face for their Regional Meetings for the first time since the pandemic. Developing a strong gender justice strategy was one of the priorities of these meetings, and it followed ongoing work by at least 10 organisations in these regions that includes promotion and expansion of female leadership in the labour movement, and increased capabilities to highlight cases of gender-based violence in the workplace and access remedy (10)
8 organisations from South Asia, South-East Asia and Eastern Europe will strengthen capacities that are relevant for their advocacy for gender justice. Examples include promotion and expansion of female leadership in the labour movement, and increased capabilities to highlight cases of gender-based violence in the workplace and access remedy
A
strengthened capacities
3
# targeted civil society actors that lobby and advocate for improved policies and practices in trade and value chains and advance fair and green practices based on capacities mutually developed
The Pay Your Workers / Respect Labour Rights campaign was CCC’s response to the pandemic. Seeing the massive wage and severance theft happening during the pandemic, as well as the rise of union busting, as a network we responded by developing a proposal for a binding agreement that, if signed by brands, would address all these issues in their supply chain. Factory-level examples of these violations were a concrete part of the campaign, and in those cases CCC local partners play a leading role in seeking remedy from brands and suppliers. Overall by the end of 2021, there were 37 active Urgent Appeal cases across the CCC network. 28 CCC partner organisations in LLMUMICs (including Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, and the Philippines) utilised CCC’s Urgent Appeal structure and systems in actively working to address and remedy labour rights violations (factory closures, wage theft, freedom of association etc) as well civic space abuses.
A new International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry was finally announced at the end of August – and took effect on September 1st - following months of brands and unions negotiating a follow up agreement to the Bangladesh Accord. The Accord - with its unique model of independent inspections / legally binding nature & governance structure which included trade unions – will continue to make thousands of factories safer for about 2 million garment workers. This was a great victory which could only be achieved due to the relentless campaigning and lobbying by a broad alliance of CSOs, with CCC a leading member. Our 8 Bangladesh partners (labour rights organisations and trade unions) were among the organisations at the forefront of these efforts,utilising a number of capacities that were strengthened. Examples include:
- Developing the campaign strategy through their participation in the CCC Accord campaigning International Working Group
- Sharing knowledge and learning from other CCC network members, in order to collaborate towards the common goal of a new Accord
- Increasing access to and capacity to engage with and lobby garment brands that produce in Bangladesh
- Utilising secure online tools to communicate and share information
- Facilitating and amplifying their (social) media reach
CCC and its partners have been a strong voice in the ongoing civil society lobbying efforts towards advancement of mHRDD legislation on the EU level, engaging in joint strategising, producing statements, public letters (1 partner from Bangladesh), research and position papers, addressing international fora (e.g the OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment & Footwear Sector, where 1 CCC partner from Sri Lanka participated) and direct lobbying of policy makers.
In 2022, 19 civil society actors mainly from Asia (including Myanmar, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh) will lobby and advocate among other things for improved policies and practices in value chains. For example CCC and partners from the Global South will further build and intensify the PayYourWorkers (PYW) coalition through activate PYW signatories to amplify and advocate the PYW demands. These demands consist of the establishment of a binding agreement to fill the covid-19 wage gaps, protect Freedom of Association, and create a Severance Guarantee Fund to ensure that garment workers receive their legally mandated severance. This is a result of informing and collaborating / joint strategizing on the national (CCC) level. (2) We expect at least 5 organisations to utilise CCC’s Urgent Appeal structure and systems in actively working to address and remedy labour rights violations (factory closures, wage theft, freedom of association etc). In Myanmar, after consultation with our Myanmar members, CCC has called for the suspension of the EU’s preferential trading system ‘Everything But Arms’ (EBA) because of the serious and systematic violations of human rights. We expect 2 Myanmar organisations to advocate the withdrawal of Everything But Arms (EBA) directly to members of the European Parliament. This is the result of mutual enhanced analysis and understanding of the EBA system and access to policy makers, In Bangladesh it is expected that 8 Bangladesh labour rights organisations and trade unions will monitor the implementation of the International Accord in Bangladesh. They will contribute to the tracker/report on the Accord and the inspections conducted by the Readymade Garments Sustainability Council (RSC), the monitoring of the performance of the complaint mechanism, and pressuring brands to make the RSC to publish the inspection and remediation reports. This will be the result of continuing coordination and joint strategising with CCC and other supporters and witness signatories of the Accord. The same partners will also be supported in strategising and coordination to lobby the ILO and other stakeholders on implementing the Employment Injury Insurance Scheme (EII) in Bangladesh. They will provide input about the exisiting test/pilot in garment factories and actively participate in lobbying the ILO to roll out the EII covering all the garment factories in the country. Through continuing coordination, knowledge exchange and joint strategising, 5 labour rights organisations and trade unions (country is not made public yet) will pressure the International Accord Agreement signatory brands and the Accord Steering Committee to expand the Accord to other countries , start a feasibility study and pilot inspections. These organisations will be key actors in updating and publishing the factory incidents tracker, and lobbying their respective governments, the Labour Department and the employers.
Please note: there is some overlap between the organisations counted below, so the total number is lower than the sum
• CCC spearheads the PayYourWorkers (PYW) coalition, whose demands consist of the establishment of a binding agreement for garment brands to fill the covid-19 wage gaps, protect Freedom of Association, and create a Severance Guarantee Fund to ensure that garment workers receive their legally mandated severance. The coalition engages, among others, in research, information sharing and joint strategising. As a result, 21 CCC partners from Sri Lanka, India, Cambodia, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Turkey and Serbia advocated the campaign demands towards garment brands through public campaigning and working on specific workplace violations. (21)
• At least 17 organisations from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Thailand, India, Indonesia and North Macedonia utilised CCC’s Urgent Appeal structure and systems in actively lobbying garment brands to address and remedy labour rights violations (factory closures, wage theft, freedom of association, gender-based violence etc.) as well civic space abuses that occurred in garment factories where these brands are sourcing from. (17)
• CCC organised a European advocacy tour (Brussels, the Hague & Amsterdam) for leaders of 2 partner trade unions from Pakistan. This tour strengthened our partners’ advocacy skills and access to policy-making spaces. They used this opportunity to directly advocate for a worker-centred safety approach in Pakistan and strong due diligence laws in meetings with national and EU policymakers and garment brands.(2)
In 2023, at least 20 civil society actors mainly from Asia (including the Philippines, India, Indonesia and Bangladesh) will lobby and advocate for improved policies and practices in value chains. Examples include: - Through information sharing, collaboration and joint strategising, CCC partners from the Global South will further strengthen the PayYourWorkers (PYW) coalition by encouraging the signatories of the coalition to advocate for the jointly formulated demands. These demands consist of the establishment of a binding agreement for garment brands to fill the covid-19 wage gaps, protect Freedom of Association, and create a Severance Guarantee Fund to ensure that garment workers receive their legally mandated severance. -Organisations will utilise CCC’s Urgent Appeal structure and systems in actively working to address and remedy labour rights violations (factory closures, wage theft, freedom of association, gender-based violence etc.) as well civic space abuses. - Direct lobbying of Western policymakers to support labour and human right struggles in countries with shrinking civic space. - Ensuring the Pakistan Accord is rolled out as intended through monitoring of garment factories, filling complaints when health and safety violations occur, and providing safety training in factories for workers and management. - Actively lobbying for the renewal of the International Accord Agreement. - Advocating proper implementation of the Employment Injury Insurance scheme in Bangladesh - Advocating to Western national and EU policymakers, the media and the public on EU due diligence legislation.
B
agenda-setting, momentum-building and increased support
4
# key actors (government, private sector, other) who put FGG policy/practice recommendations on their agendas (e.g. meetings, debates, media coverage)
CCC and its partners, in their ongoing lobbying efforts towards advancement of mHRDD legislation on EU and European national level, engaged closely – through correspondence and meetings – with a number of policy makers on various levels (MPs, MEPs, Commissioners etc). (1)
CCC and a number of its partners participated in several panels at the OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment & Footwear Sector on topics such as the impact of the crisis on garment workers, mandatory human rights due diligence, transparency, responsible purchasing practices and the development of social protection systems. (1)
During our campaign for extension and expansion of the Bangladesh Accord CCC actively engaged with the Dutch ministry, the Dutch Embassy in Bangladesh, Dutch politicians (resulting in parliamentary questions) and Dutch MEPs, (1)
As part of the many Urgent Appeal cases that CCC was involved with throughout the year, we actively engaged with at least 23 sourcing brands in our attempts to bring remedy to affected garment workers.
As a result of the earlier complain submitted by CCC, SOMO and a Myanmar partner against an AGT member brand (C&A), in 2021 the AGT Complaints and Disputes Committee issued an interim ruling. Even though the interim ruling did not bring the desired outcome for the Myanmar garment workers involved, it recognised the role of our partner as legitimate stakeholder in representing the workers and made a number of positive recommendations to the brand (to use the knowledge and expertise of local and international stakeholders, talk about freedom of association in the factory with stakeholders, facilitate a dialogue with workers and management of this garment factory etc). The final ruling is expected in 2022. (1)
CCC’s work was regularly in the news during 2021. Examples include:
- Wide coverage of our campaign – and success – on the Accord across international and Dutch media (incl. radio, TV and newspapers) (1)
- The launch of the CCC report "Breaking Point; Wage Theft, Violence and Excessive Workloads are pushing Garment Workers to Breaking Point during the Pandemic" was covered by the Guardian and other outlets. In this report, published July 2021, CCC conducted interviews with 49 garment workers in the supply chains of H&M, Nike and Primark in Bangladesh, Cambodia and Indonesia. The interviews show that the Coronavirus-induced crisis continues to have a devastating impact on the wages, working conditions, and labour rights of garment workers.(1)
- The launch of the CCC report "Still Un(der)paid" was featured in an exclusive article in the Financial Times. Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, garment workers around the world have been left unpaid or underpaid, causing a wage gap between what they received and what they are owed. This report from August 2020 estimates for seven countries the wage losses that workers have suffered and urges brands, retailers and e-tailers to commit to a wage assurance to make sure workers are made whole.(1)
As part of our work on labour rights abuses in Myanmar since the military coup, we organised a webinar that brought together experts to reflect on how brands and the international community can have an impact in combating military repression and supporting human rights in Myanmar. Heidi Hautala, the Vice-President of the European Parliament was one of the speakers. (1) (x)
10 key actors (Dutch government, MEPs, brands) will put FGG policy/practice recommendations on their agendas in 2022. CCC priorities will be reflected in the agenda of a number of policy making and civil society processes, such as: the European Commission’s Corporate Sustainable Reporting Directive; the EU Strategy for Sustainable Textiles; and the ongoing civil society initiative on purchasing practices [details to be added]. Furthermore CCC’s priority will also lie on so called Enforceable Brand Agreements, for the establishment of a binding agreements to protect workers’ right to organize, living wages and severance pay.
For example:
On the level of IMVO in the Netherlands, we expect legislation to remain on the political agenda in 2022 of both coalition and opposition parties. Strong legislation is tabled and discussed in parliament. This is the result of combined lobby efforts by SKC (I.e CCC NL) and like-minded organisations and improved proposals of political parties on IMVO policy and legislation (1).
On the EU level, European legislation is discussed in parliament by Dutch MEPs and strong IMVO is on the political agenda of Dutch MEPs. This is the result of lobbying efforts of CCC (1). We aim for 1 policymaker (from Europe) to put an FGG recommendation on their agenda that contributes to gender equality. This agenda-setting concerns, among other things, the importance of integrating a gender justice perspective into the development of HRDD regulation. With regard to living wages, the European Commission will accept and register the European Citizen Initiative (ECI) on living wages. This means, the ECI met the criteria and CCC and allies can start campaigning for signatures among citizens of the EU. (1)
With regards to the situation in Myanmar, a formal complaint will be submitted to the EU with regards to the country’s participation in the preferential trading system ‘Everything But Arms’ (EBA). As a result, we expect the EU to launch a formal investigation on Myanmar’s EBA status. (1)
When it comes to enforceable brand agreements (EBAs), we expect 3 brands to start a conversation on the Wage Assurance, Severance Guarantee and RLR agreement . This is the result of campaigning and lobbying of CCC and allies. The establishment of a binding agreement to fill the wage gap and protect FoA, and create a Severance Guarantee Fund to ensure that garment workers receive their legally mandated severance. Campaigning will be around specific COVID19-related Urgent Appeal cases or human-rights defenders’ cases, public events and targeted lobby to increase pressure on brands. (3)
Furthermore, the International accord will be high on the agenda of Dutch policymakers (including Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Embassy and parliament) due to CCC’s informing of allies and other stakeholders incl ministry, Embassies, MEPs, Dutch parliamentarians on signatory assessments and sharing of concerns with the relevant authorities/stakeholders (1)
• Throughout the year, 20 garment brands were made to engage in over 30 Urgent Appeal cases taken up by CCC and its partners in a number of countries (including Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand and Sri Lanka) in our attempts to bring remedy to affected workers on issues such as freedom of association, labour practices, wages, factory closures and gender discrimination. The engagement of the garment brands involves, among others, communication with the CCC partner and Urgent Appeal case coordinators, communication with their suppliers, and reporting on the facts of the case (or at least their version of those facts).(20, including 4g and 14x)
• CCC campaign demands, statements, op-eds and research were proactively featured in a number of mainstream (online) media outlets which reach beyond CCC’s already existing support base in terms of public outreach. A non-exhaustive list includes: 3 articles on the International Accord for Health and Safety in Bangladesh, 4 articles on the landmark legal case brought by garment workers against Tesco and social auditing firm Intertek for negligence, and against Tesco for unjust enrichment, 2 articles on the expansion of the Accord to Pakistan, 4 articles on the three huge wins of CCC and its partners on cases of owed severance and wage theft (Karnataka, Industrias Florenzi and Brilliant Alliance) which were part of the PayYourWorkers campaign, 1 Dutch television programme report on greenwashing in the garment industry, 1 Dutch television programme report on the effects of fast fashion, 1 article on supply chain abuses by garment brands linked to the FIFA World Cup, and 1 article on mandatory human rights due diligence legislation in the Netherlands and the EU (17).
• CCC lobbied the Dutch government and Dutch members of parliament regarding a bill on mandatory human rights due diligence legislation. SKC together with the MVO platform – and mostly closely with trade union CNV – advocated for the publication of this bill. Together with CNV, SKC was the lead in the advocacy towards the Christian Democratic party (CDA) on this issue, which resulted in a new ‘vision on development cooperation’ publication within the party which is now leading the internal debate on this issue, which will hopefully lead to the adoption of the bill in 2023. Specifically CCC had close contact with Mustafa Amhaouch of CDA party, Stieneke van der Graaf of the CU party, and the development team of the Labour party (PvdA). Additionally, SKC organised a lobby tour in December with partners from Pakistan, which led to meetings with the Ministry and in Parliament to talk about the importance of this bill. (2)
• As part of CCC’s lobbying work on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, an event was organised at the European Parliament (in collaboration, among others, with Action Aid) called "Toward a gender-responsive due diligence directive: Learning from women's experience in Pakistan's garment sector". CCC also co-organised and participated in a number of advocacy meetings (8 meetings with European Commission services and Cabinet members, 1 Permanent Representation and 4 MEPs). The legislative process on Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence is ongoing, and such interactions include robust exchanges of arguments on the various issues and put the positions and recommendations of CCC and its partners firmly on the agenda of certain members of the European Commission and the European Parliament. (2 – including 1g)
• A number of sessions organised by, or with panel participation of CCC Network members and partners, at the annual OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment and Footwear Sector on topics such as caste-based discrimination, traceability and transparency, poverty wages and access to remedy. This is a major yearly OECD event for the garment sector, and CCC’s involvement influences its thematic focus and debates. (1)
• A meeting with CCC trade union leaders and a big garment brand was held to discuss the Pay Your Workers agreement, endorsed by over 280 trade unions and NGO’s globally. The PYW coalition urges brands to pay into a severance guarantee fund, to pay back workers’ full wages and to ensure Freedom of Association. The brand has not yet agreed to the demands of the campaign, but our engagement continues on an issue (legally binding agreement around workers’ wages and other monetary compensation) that garment brands are confronted with for the first time. (1x)
• Actively supported by CCC via extensive social media campaigning, the petition on the Europe Citizen Initiative on living wages (Good Clothes Fair Pay campaign) was signed by almost 100.000 EU citizens. The campaign calls for strong EU due diligence legislation on living wages for the garment sector. (1)
We expect 36 actors to put CCC policy and/or practice recommendations on their agenda. Examples include: - Garment brands start negotiations on the CCC proposal for the Enforceable Brand Agreement of the PayYourWorkers- RespectLabourRights campaign - Dutch MEPs facilitate European Parliament discussions on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDD) Directive regarding its scope, stakeholder engagement and access to remedy. - As a result of the European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) campaign “Good Clothes, Fair Pay”, which CCC is a prominent member of, the European Commission will invite CCC and rest of Citizen’s Committee to discuss the campaign’s demands for legislation on living wages for garment workers. - The implementation of the Pakistan Accord, for which 2023 will be a crunch year, and the renewal of the International Accord Agreement, which will need to take place in 2023, will be on the agenda of Dutch policymakers (including the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dutch Embassies and the parliament). - CCC campaign demands, statements, op-eds and research will be proactively featured in a number of mainstream (online) media outlets which reach beyond CCC’s already existing support base in terms of public outreach. - Garment brands will actively engage in Urgent Appeal cases taken up by CCC and its partners in our attempts to bring remedy to affected workers.
B
agenda-setting, momentum-building and increased support
4g
# of instances in which the recommendation a key actor puts on its agenda aims to contribute to gender justice
We aim for 1 policymaker (from Europe) to put an FGG recommendation on their agenda that contributes to gender equality. This agenda-setting concerns, among other things, the importance of integrating a gender justice perspective into the development of HRDD regulation.
Indicated with g under 4
Garment brands will actively engage in Urgent Appeal cases that pertain to gender-based violence.
C
governments increasing democratic decision-making
5C
# key actors who support and/or promote FGG policy/practice recommendations
- European national and EU policymakers publicly support CCC partner positions and demands around human and labour right violations in Myanmar and Hong Kong. - Key policymakers (MEPs, EC officials, Ministers, and MPs) publicly support some of the CCC positions on areas such as freedom of association, living wages and gender equality, transparency, purchasing practices, social auditing failures.
C
governments increasing democratic decision-making
5Cx
# of instances in which the supported and/or promoted recommendation by a key actor aims to contribute to expanding/defending civic space
Western national and EU policymakers publicly support CCC partner positions and demands around human and labour right violations in Myanmar and Hong Kong.
C
governments increasing democratic decision-making
5Cg
# of instances in which the supported and/or promoted recommendation by a partner aims to contribute to gender justice
C
governments increasing democratic decision-making
6C
# instances in which key actors adopt and/or implement FGG policy/practice recommendations
C
governments increasing democratic decision-making
6Cx
# of instances in which the adopted and/or implemented policies/practices by key actors contribute to expanding/defending civic space
C
governments increasing democratic decision-making
6Cg
# of instances in which the adopted and/or implemented policies/practices by key actors contribute to gender justice
D
governments regulating the private sector
5D
# key actors who support and/or promote FGG policy/practice recommendations
Through continuous advocacy with a broad alliance of civil society organisations in the Netherlands, CCC contributed to the outcome of the Dutch Government announcing in December 2021 that the Netherlands will start a legislative process to implement national due diligence legislation. This objective was also included in the coalition agreement that the new coalition presented later in December 2021. Activities included that contributed to this result: advocacy by SKC towards political parties to integrate mHRDD in election programmes and party member resolutions/ advocating in the Netherlands for national mHRDD in addition to EU mHRDD to move the public debate from voluntary initiatives to binding legislation by developing a video and infographic and organising a public debate with (candidate) Eps for a wider audience/Dutch public on the need for national mhrdd & actively pushed for a coalition petition of IDVO (a broad coalition of companies, academics, religious institutions, unions and CSOs) for mandatory national due diligence legislation in the Netherlands – which was signed by more than 40.000 people – and presented in Parliament to parliamentarians/ publishing reports on company thresholds (to show all companies should be part of legislation instead of only the bigger ones) and on the insufficient performance of the MSI the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile. (1)
Result Area D
• In November 2022, The ‘Bill on Responsible and Sustainable International Business Conduct’, was submitted to the Dutch Parliament by five Dutch political parties. (Christian Union, Labour Party, Greens, Socialist Party and the centrist D66). SKC advocated in 2022 for the adoption of the bill. This bill will, when adopted by parliament, oblige companies to conduct business with respect for human rights, the environment, and the climate and improves access to remedy and justice for the victims of business-related human rights and environmental abuse. (1)
•
• After sustained lobbying by CCC’s Croatian trade union partner, the Croatian Minister of State Property promised in a statement to the media to intervene on behalf of the Orljava factory workers who are still owed half a million euros in severance pay after the factory closed in 2021. (1)
• A number of recommendations of CSOs (including CCC) on the proposal on MHRDD were included in the European Commission’s long-awaited legislative proposal on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (1 – also x)
- Key policymakers (MEPs, EC officials, Ministers, and MPs) publicly support some of the CCC positions on areas such as supply chain transparency, brand purchasing practices and social auditing failures.
D
governments regulating the private sector
5Dx
# of instances in which the supported and/or promoted recommendation by a key actor aims to contribute to expanding/defending civic space
With regard to the elements of the EC proposal on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence that promote freedom of association and workers’ mobilisation (see 5D)
D
governments regulating the private sector
5Dg
# of instances in which the supported and/or promoted recommendation by a partner aims to contribute to gender justice
D
governments regulating the private sector
6D
# instances in which key actors adopt and/or implement FGG policy/practice recommendations
Through our continuing engagement with the ILO, we expect the organisation to share the outcome of the pilot programme and reach agreement with all stakeholders to roll out the Employment Injury Insurance (EII) Scheme and implement it in all the garment factories in Bangladesh
The Bangladeshi government, in association with employers, trade unions, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), Germany, and the Netherlands, successfully released a landmark pilot project of the country's first Employment Injury Insurance (EII) scheme for garment workers. After year-long delays and almost a decade of work and considerable pressure from (partner) Bangladeshi trade unions and civil society organisations supported by CCC’s expertise, resources, lobbying and campaigning efforts, this was a milestone for the over 4 million garment workers in Bangladesh.(1)
- In the Netherlands the national IMVO proposal law will be stronger as a result of SKC’s lobby work in terms of company scope, access to remedy and stakeholder and engagement. - Concrete changes (preferably amendments) in the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDD) Directive text proposed by the European Commission.
D
governments regulating the private sector
6Dx
# of instances in which the adopted and/or implemented policies/practices by key actors contribute to expanding/defending civic space
D
governments regulating the private sector
6Dg
# of instances in which the adopted and/or implemented policies/practices by key actors contribute to gender justice
E
private sector actors respecting human rights and the environment
5E
# key actors who support and/or promote FGG policy/practice recommendations
We continued our work in trying to make supply chain data more accessible and pushing more brands to publish their supplier lists. Through lobbying the Agreement on Sustainable Garments and Textile in earlier years and continue our dialogue with them to enhance transparency of members companies, 7 companies signed the Transparency Pledge in 2021. Supply chain transparency is essential for all workers and worker representatives in garment production countries to be able to claim their rights in case human rights violations go unresolved. (7)
We continued our lobbying work regarding improved policies and practices related to freedom of association, transparency, living wages and social security towards Fair Wear Foundation (MSI) and its members. Through our role in the Committee of Experts engaged with the FWF in regard to their renewed policy on transparency which was approved by the board with the provision that it will be reviewed in one year's time with specific attention for disaggregated disclosure by the brands. We also have provided input to the the renewal of their Brand Performance Check (BPC) guide, which resulted in strengthening some of its indicators. (1)
Over the year, CCC campaigned intensively for the establishment of a binding agreement with protections for workers’ right to organize and bargain collectively, that will fill the wage gap experienced by millions of workers during the pandemic, and create a Severance Guarantee Fund to ensure that garment workers receive their legally mandated severance. In March, we launched our #PayYourWorkers & #RespectLabourRights coalition and website with a week of action around the world. By the end of the year, more than 250 CSOs had endorsed the campaign globally. From the side of the private sector:
- 3 brands and 1 bank (ASN) have supported the campaign (4)
- over a dozen brands committed to ensuring their workers are paid in full during the pandemic (13)
We expect 10 brands and or MSIs to support and/or promote FGG policy/practice recommendations with regard to safety, purchasing practices,, severance (living) wages and transparency.
Result Area E
• Following the H&M annual general meeting, the Swedish bank Länsförsäkringar, a major investor of H&M, supported a shareholder resolution, initiated by a CCC partner, to join negotiations for a binding agreement to pay back workers and establish a Severance Guarantee Fund. (1)
• A group of responsible business conduct and multi-stakeholder initiatives (including ETI and FWF) released common guidelines on responsible purchasing practices for their participating garment brands, partially reflecting the input of CCC and several of its partners on highlighting the enormous influence of purchasing practices on factory conditions, identifying some of the most detrimental practices (short-term planning; last minute changes in order specification or order size; inaccurate forecasting; and late payments) and providing a range of concrete ideas for garment companies that are yet to take the first steps in this area.. (2)
• Two Dutch garment brands spoke publicly about being in favour of strong due diligence law in the Netherlands in meetings with policymakers (as a result of dialogue / lobby meetings with SKC) or via the campaign IDVO (of which SKC is a campaign member) (2).
- A number of garment brands sign the International Accord Agreement and/or publicly commit and sign its renewal.
E
private sector actors respecting human rights and the environment
5Ex
# of instances in which the supported and/or promoted recommendation by a key actor aims to contribute to expanding/defending civic space
E
private sector actors respecting human rights and the environment
5Eg
# of instances in which the supported and/or promoted recommendation by a partner aims to contribute to gender justice
E
private sector actors respecting human rights and the environment
6E
# instances in which key actors adopt and/or implement FGG policy/practice recommendations
A new International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry was finally announced on 25th August, following months of brands and unions negotiating a follow up agreement to the Bangladesh Accord. This was a great victory which could only be achieved due to the relentless campaigning and lobbying by a broad alliance of CSOs, with CCC a leading member. The Bangladesh Accord - with its unique model of independent inspections / legally binding nature & governance structure which included trade unions - made thousands of factories safer for about 2 million garment workers. On 1 September the new Accord took effect, announcing 77 signatory brands; by the end of the year, that number had increased to 155. An important feature of the new Accord is that it is international and will be expanded to at least one other country in the next two years.
A huge win for the CCC Urgent Appeals system: victory for the workers of the Kanlayanee factory in Mae Sot, Thailand, where they received the final payment of a total of more than 3.46 million Thai baht (approx. $110,000 USD). NBC Universal (US based broadcasting company) was the last company to agree to pay the group of 26 migrant workers in 2022, following earlier similar action from Disney, Starbucks and Tesco. This is the first time migrant workers won full compensation in a case of wage theft – a regulatory black hole where exploitation is rife and many factories operate without proper inspections. This monumental win would not have been possible without the energy and action from people and organisations around the world. The former Kanlayanee workers have been fighting for justice for over a year, demanding that they are paid what they are legally owed.
Lobbying from the Coalition to End Uyghur Forced Labour (CCC is a member of its steering committee) resulted in the multi-stakeholder initiative Fair Labor Asssociation issuing a ban on sourcing and production from the Xinjiang region, and Marks & Spencer becoming the first top-tier global clothing company to formally announce it will not work with suppliers implicated in Uyghur forced labour.
CCC will engage in a number of Urgent Appeal cases, where labour and human rights violations – regarding wage theft, severance pay, factory closures, freedom of association etc – have occurred against garment workers. We expect brands and suppliers to provide remedy in 5 such cases For example, in Myanmar, Myo Aye and/or other political prisoners released from prison through active lobby by CCC towards brands, embassy, MSI’s. (5 in total for UAs) Furthermore, we expect 1 brand to improve their policy, methodoloy (such as the use of credible benchmarks such as AFWA and EFW) and /or conduct on living wages due to active lobbying by CCC (1) In the context of our #PayYourWorkers – #RespectLabourRights campaign, we will identify a number of strategic cases (selected brands and factories) and coordinate international campaigning for back-pay of wages, severance pay or guarantee the workers’ right to organise. We expect to win 3 of these cases. CCC standards on responsible exit policies (in countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh) and transparency on due diligence processes are integrated into brands’ and MSI’s policies and practices. This is the result of CCC’s/SKC’s direct lobbying efforts and information sharing of CCC standards on responsible exit policies integrated into brands’ and MSI’s policies. (1)
Result Area E
• 27 additional garment brands signed the International Accord for Health and Safety in Bangladesh (27)
• On December 14, 2022, the International Accord Steering Committee (comprising of 15 members from garment brands and national and global trade unions) agreed to the establishment of Pakistan Accord on Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry. The new Pakistan Accord is a legally binding agreement between the unions and garment brands and retailers sourcing from Pakistan for an initial term of three years. The Steering Committee, as governing body of the International Accord, will monitor signatories’ fulfilment of the Pakistan Accord and oversee management of the Pakistan Accord until a national governance body is established. The process for individual brands to sign the Pakistan Accord started in January. In addition to being a witness signatory, CCC played a prominent role in achieving a result that will benefit millions of workers, through network building with trade unions and labour NGOs in Pakistan, capacity development of Pakistan partners to lobby brands and policymakers, cross-border collaboration between trade unions and other workers’ organisations, producing research and reports that highlighted the deficiencies in safety protections in the garment industry in Pakistan, and active public campaigning. (1)
• Three huge Urgent Appeal case wins, in which garment suppliers and brands paid almost USD 20 million to thousands of workers in owed wages, compensation and severance pay in Thailand, India and El Salvador. These cases are part of our PayYourWorkers-RespectLabourRights campaign for an Enforceable Brand Agreement that aims to fill the wage gap experienced by millions of workers during the pandemic, create a Severance Guarantee Fund to ensure that garment workers receive their legally mandated severance pay in future, and protects workers’ right to organize. In more detail:
- The workers of the Industrias Florenzi factory in El Salvador, a priority case for the PYW campaign, won their struggle for the severance they were owed. After more than a year of campaigning, 207 former employees who made Greys Anatomy scrubs at the factory, won their fight for severance benefits. The workers received 1 million USD by Barco Uniforms, which commissioned the scrubs. Each of the factory’s 207 former employees received $5,000, almost 14 months of wages.
- In April 2020, a minimum wage increase went into effect in the Indian state of Karnataka, one of the country's largest centres of garment manufacturing. Garment factory owners producing for leading apparel brands refused to pay. As a result, 400,000 garment workers across over a thousand factories were cheated of the legal minimum wage – amounting to nearly $60 million in back wages owed. In response to our Karnataka #WorstWageTheft campaign, the region's biggest employer, Shahi Exports agreed to start paying the full minimum wage immediately and to pay back the 10 million USD in arrears owed to workers. CCC continues to campaign for other suppliers in the region to follow suit.
- In the largest case of severance theft ever at an individual garment factory and the largest case victory to date, Victoria's Secret provided $8.3 million (281 million baht) to 1,250 Thai workers who lost their jobs without receiving their legally-owed severance after the Brilliant Alliance factory in Thailand suddenly closed. CCC coordinated protest actions around the world on Valentine's Day to show solidarity with the workers. In March, the #PayYourWorkers campaign launched a website and the hashtag #VictoriasDirtySecret, exposing Victoria's Secret's behaviour towards the workers. (3)
• Transparency of a company’s manufacturing supply chain better enables a company to collaborate with civil society in identifying, assessing, and avoiding actual or potential adverse human rights impacts and is a critical step that strengthens a company’s human rights due diligence. In 2022, at least 26 additional garment brands enhanced the transparency of their supplying chain by publishing lists of their suppliers (e.g. name and address of all authorized production facilities, name of parent company, type of products made and worker numbers per site), in some cases even going beyond Tier 1 production and including sub-contractors, as well as (partial) wage data. All this information is included in CCC’s fashion supply chain transparency tool, Fashion Checker. (26)
- FWF policy on due diligence and/or transparency is changed. - Garment brands make credible steps in their policy or practice towards paying a living wage (e.g. increased wages at the level of international acknowledged living wage benchmarks in supply chain in 1 or more factories or make use of the Europe Floor Wage benchmark). - The International Accord will start its implementation in Pakistan. - Several garment brands will publish a Roadmap for full supply chain transparency. - Several garment brands will start publishing wage data as part of their disclosure. - Several suppliers and brands will provide remedy in cases of wage theft, severance pay, freedom of association etc that were taken up by the CCC Urgent Appeal mechanism.
E
private sector actors respecting human rights and the environment
6Ex
# of instances in which the adopted and/or implemented policies/practices by key actors contribute to expanding/defending civic space
E
private sector actors respecting human rights and the environment
6Eg
# of instances in which the adopted and/or implemented policies/practices by key actors contribute to gender justice
F
governments, government-backed agencies, donors, private sector actors increasing policy space and support for fair and green practices
5F
# key actors who support and/or promote FGG policy/practice recommendations
In our campaign for the extension of the Accord, CCC lobbied the Dutch Ministry, the Dutch Embassy in Bangladesh, Dutch politicians and Dutch MEPs, which resulted in political as well as public support to the Accord. In response to parliamentary questions, the minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation underlined the importance of the components that make up the Accord and are considered to have made the Accord successful (legally binding nature, accountability of brands) and also stressed the importance of the lessons learned to other producing countries, which was a strong signal to brands to come to a renewed agreement with the unions. (1)
As part of our Pay Your Workers campaign, we further engaged with the Dutch unions FNV and CNV to call for brands signing an enforceable brand agreement which includes wage assurances, which represents a commitment of apparel companies to guarantee to fill the 'wage gap' created by COVID-19. The agreement will also protect workers’ right to organise and bargain collectively, and demands companies to assure payment of a price premium on future orders into a guarantee fund reserved to support stronger social protections for workers. By the end of 2021, one Dutch union endorsed the proposal. (1)
A number of investors use their leverage over garment brands involved in Pay Your Workers Urgent Appeal cases to start negotiating with the Pay Your Workers Union Bargaining Committee.
F
governments, government-backed agencies, donors, private sector actors increasing policy space and support for fair and green practices
5Fx
# of instances in which the supported and/or promoted recommendation by a key actor aims to contribute to expanding/defending civic space
F
governments, government-backed agencies, donors, private sector actors increasing policy space and support for fair and green practices
5Fg
# of instances in which the supported and/or promoted recommendation by a partner aims to contribute to gender justice
F
governments, government-backed agencies, donors, private sector actors increasing policy space and support for fair and green practices
6F
# instances in which key actors adopt and/or implement FGG policy/practice recommendations
F
governments, government-backed agencies, donors, private sector actors increasing policy space and support for fair and green practices
6Fx
# of instances in which the adopted and/or implemented policies/practices by key actors contribute to expanding/defending civic space
F
governments, government-backed agencies, donors, private sector actors increasing policy space and support for fair and green practices
6Fg
# of instances in which the adopted and/or implemented policies/practices by key actors contribute to gender justice
SCS
governments, government-backed agencies, donors, private sector actors increasing policy space and support for fair and green practices
6SCS1
# of laws, policies and norms, implemented for sustainable and inclusive development
The cornerstone of the CCC network, which includes more than 230 partner organisations in both production (Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa) and consumption (Western Europe) countries, is collaboration that greatly depends on learning from each other, evaluating what works and what doesn’t, and drawing from experience. Producing, disseminating and exchanging knowledge is paramount to the efficacy and successes of our work, on a wide range of areas that include remedy of labour rights violations, lobbying policymakers, campaign strategy and structural improvements in the global garment industry. To that end, over the course of 2022 CCC and its partners will organise, fund and facilitate a number of learning opportunities, physical and online, that include trainings on the CCC Urgent Appeals system, trainings on digital security, thematic learning sessions in annual CCC regional meetings, fundraising trainings, and communication, social media and campaigning trainings. On a longer term basis, CCC’s new Global Strategic Framework, which reflects our aims, strategies and methods for the period 2021 to 2026, has a very strong MEL component built in, which will allow us to learn and adapt.
SCS
governments, government-backed agencies, donors, private sector actors increasing policy space and support for fair and green practices
6SCS2
# of laws, policies and norms/attitudes, blocked, adopted, improved for sustainable and inclusive development
From our Urgent Appeal cases and the strategic cases of our #PayYourWorkers – #RespectLabourRights campaign, to the implementation of the Bangladesh Accord and the expansion of the programme to other countries, to leveraging the EU’s GSP and EBA trade systems, CCC member organisations in garment production countries (e.g Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Indonesia, Sri Lanka etc) are actively engaged in the strategy and implementation of all these efforts. Examples include: - Local trade unions, with presence in work places where labour rights violations are taking place, lead the strategy and engagement with stakeholders (factory owners, brands etc) in order to achieve remedy - The aim to expand the ground breaking, legally binding programme for factory health and safety from Bangladesh to another country has been – and will continue to be – spearheaded by the local CCC partners through research, lobbying and joint strategising - CCC has facilitated, and will continue to do so, the coming together of our partners in Myanmar so they can discuss and agree on an international lobbying strategy that will put pressure on the country’s military regime
Process
process
l
learning sessions organised by FGG members and partner organisations
Below a detailed list of learning outputs (trainings, webinars, research, reports etc) which exemplify the structural learning element of the CCC work:
A series of 8 podcasts were produced by CCC and by the end of the year were publicly available on the most popular listening platforms (including Spotify, Apple and Google). They amplified voices from around the network, on topics such as how Indonesian workers organise in times of COVID-19, how garment workers in southern India combat sexual harassment, how community mobilisation defended a garment worker in Romania, how low wages help trap workers as much as bonded labour in Cambodia, and how digital technology is changing garment work, organising and campaigning. The podcasts were initially internal, as part of the digital version of the CCC Global Forum, which replaced the planned physical version due to the pandemic., and were opportunities for the CCC network to learn about topics, local struggles, strategies etc. We later decided to also make them publicly available.
A number of trainings were organised by and for the CCC network, as part of our Global Forum and were very well attended by colleagues from partner organisations around the world. Topics included: Urgent Appeal case coordination; Supply chain research (delivered by SOMO); Putting the Global Strategic Framework into action; How to create impact on social media; How to communicate with the press; and Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning.
Other trainings included:
- Together with Anti-Slavery International and Global Witness, two short trainings on human rights due diligence and the upcoming legal proposal of the EU will publish. The objective of the trainings wass to raise awareness and facilitate the involvement in this process of organisations based in garment-producing countries.
- Urgent Appeal training focusing on how to develop a case strategy, specifically how to prepare demands that will lead to case resolution and how to ensure the strategy is focused, inclusive, innovate and effective in identifying points of leverage and building power.
- Digital campaign training, which offered skills to help individuals in the CCC network consistently use best practices in key areas of digital campaigning, on the systems-side of things (how things work), on strategy aspects (where and how you choose to apply leverage for change), as well as the output-side (what communication products you develop and how these are shared).
Webinars and online events:
- As part of the launch of the CCC documentary film on severance theft “How To Steal Your Workers' Future”, we hosted a panel discussion featuring Dian Trisnanti and Elly Rosita Silaban, two inspirational women union leaders from Indonesia; and a webinar on severance and wage theft co-hosted with Migrant Forum in Asia, discussing the successful Kanlayanee case the ongoing Jaba Garmindo case.
- Our partners Migrant Forum Asia and the Cross-Regional Center for Refugees and Migrants formally launched the Migrant Women Forum (MWF), a loose network that seeks to work specifically on the issues of women, gender, and migration, mainly in this particular corridor of Asia and the Middle East. The launch webinar assessed how COVID 19 is affecting women migrant workers, explored COVID-19-related developments in the Asia-Middle East corridor, and identified support and services that are in place.
- A webinar on labour rights abuses in Myanmar since the military coup, with focus on the garment sector. The event brought together experts on Myanmar, labour rights and the garment industry to reflect on how brands and the international community can have an impact in combating military repression and supporting human rights in Myanmar.
- An online event titled "Who’s your feminism for? Gender & discrimination in the global fashion industry". Newly produced clothes and shoes have passed the hands of many women before consumers find them in stores. Most of these women face exploitation and a hostile working environment due to discrimination, disrespect and abuse within garment factories. Participants heard from the women themselves, what it means to work in the garment sector, what it means to face discrimination and harassment in the factories, but also how women organise themselves to change the situation.
Reports and research:
- "Breaking Point; Wage Theft, Violence and Excessive Workloads are pushing Garment Workers to Breaking Point during the Pandemic", about workers' experiences during the pandemic in the supply chains of H&M, Primark and Nike in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Cambodia, based on findings from interviews with 49 workers. The report launch was covered by the Guardian, among others.
- “Fashioning justice”, a report which shows that non-enforceable initiatives and voluntary commitments by garment brands have failed to protect workers’ human rights and deliver justice, and puts forward concrete proposals for binding rules aimed at ensuring responsible business conduct. The recommendations are supported with an overview of the policy context and of the current realities in the garment industry.
- CCC Turkey published a report showing the effects of the pandemic on workers in garment factories in Turkey. The effects range from health risks, and underpayment to harassment. The report includes recommendations in line with the PayYourWorkers campaign.
- The "Still Un(der)paid" report estimated that garment workers globally were deprived of USD 11.85 bn in wages, severance and benefits for the period March 2020 - March 2021. The report was featured in an exclusive article in the Financial Times.
- Research of garment workers in Sri Lanka, conducted in partnership with Solidarity Center and IndustriALL, found employer opposition and harassment has limited their ability to form unions and address workplace rights violations, such as increased workloads and work hours, lay offs and temporary termination.
- In the context of the Accord expansion beyond Bangladesh, CCC and its Pakistan partners conducted a survey about factory safety in the country, which included almost 600 workers. Results will be published in 2022.
Databases
As a network, we receive, generate and process huge amounts of data. Either through own research (Fashionchecker.org), collaborating with others, by pushing for more transparency, or as a result of the live-blog on Covid that we have been maintaining. At the same time, we need to make sure that some of the organisational memory is kept in a form that allows for analysis and research. For that reason we need a much more structured approach to data and information. Both on strategies and cases in Urgent Appeals, in other campaigns, but also on the development and evaluation of the Network’s operational planning for the GSF2. By making sure these different pieces of information use the same or similar back-ends, taxonomies and classifications, we can also increase our PMEL efficiency towards the network itself, donors, and other stakeholders.
To that end, a number of databases have been created, and their use disseminated across the CCC network: Urgent Appeals database; PMEL database (see below); Campaigns database (still in development).
PMEL
As part of our new 5-year Global Strategic Framework, a new yearly planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning process has been initiated across the CCC network. The aims, among others, are to facilitate collaborations (esp. in the global South) between organisations that work on common topics, to evaluate what work and what doesn’t, to assess progress, and to learn from our successes.
Producing, disseminating and exchanging knowledge is paramount to the efficacy and successes of our work, on a wide range of areas that include remedy of labour rights violations, lobbying policymakers, campaign strategy and structural improvements in the global garment industry.
To that end, over the course of 2022 CCC and its partners will organise, fund and facilitate a number of learning opportunities, physical and online, that include trainings on the CCC Urgent Appeals system, trainings on digital security, thematic learning sessions in annual CCC regional meetings, fundraising trainings, and communication, social media and campaigning trainings.
On a longer term basis, CCC’s new Global Strategic Framework, which reflects our aims, strategies and methods for the period 2021 to 2026, has a very strong MEL component built in, which will allow us to learn and adapt.
The cornerstone of the CCC network, which includes more than 240 partner organisations in both production (Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa) and consumption (Western Europe) countries, is collaboration that greatly depends on learning from each other, evaluating what works and what doesn’t, and drawing from experience.
Producing, disseminating and exchanging knowledge is paramount to the efficacy and successes of our work, on a wide range of areas that include remedy of labour rights violations, expanding civic space, lobbying policymakers, campaign strategy and structural improvements in the global garment industry.
To that end, over the course of 2022, CCC and its partners organised, funded and facilitated a number of learning opportunities, physical and online, that included trainings on the CCC Urgent Appeals system, thematic learning sessions in annual CCC regional meetings, public webinars, and digital communication trainings. Some examples:
• “A Living Wage is Possible!” Forum held in Zagreb, Croatia with 120 participants from all over the world
• A capacity development series on CCC’s Urgent Appeal structure was conducted in the Philippines, Indonesia, Cambodia, Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka. The participants increased their knowledge about the global supply chains, and learned about triangle solidarity. This involves campaigning in the producing country where violations occur, campaigning in garment consumer countries as well as campaigning in the home country of the factory owner. For example, in the Philippines, the training on women leadership and introduction on urgent appeal system was held in December. The training was attended by 46 garment workers and 25 participants attended online. The training included topics such as basic labour rights, the urgent appeals mechanism, the ILO Convention 190 or the convention to eliminate violence at work and the importance of leadership in organizing and being part of unions.
• Training in early July in Indonesia and early September in Pakistan. In Indonesia, the training aimed to give a deeper understanding of Urgent Appeals work so members and partners can use it more strategically. Focus was also placed on how Urgent Appeals can be an effective tool to facilitate the resolution of labour rights violations, when and how to use the new Urgent Appeals system and what information is needed. In Lahore, Pakistan, six member organisations participated in the capacity development training. While also focusing on providing a deeper understanding of the new structure, the training provided an in-depth orientation on how to pressure companies to take responsibility for workers' rights throughout the global supply chains, how CCC can work with reporting organisations to pressure brands, lobby governments, educate consumers and provide solidarity with garment and sportswear workers.
• Several online peer-learning sessions as part of the Digital Communications trainings were held in late February. Topics included 'Writing concisely in English', 'Making short videos', 'Youth and Social media', 'Deep Dive Twitter', 'Digital security', 'Data visualisation' and 'Editing social media in Canva'.
The cornerstone of the CCC network, which includes more than 240 partner organisations in both production (Asia, Eastern Europe, Africa) and consumption (Western Europe) countries, is collaboration that greatly depends on learning from each other, evaluating what works and what doesn’t, and drawing from experience. Producing, disseminating and exchanging knowledge is paramount to the efficacy and successes of our work, on a wide range of areas that include remedy of labour rights violations, expanding civic space, lobbying policymakers, campaign strategy and structural improvements in the global garment industry. To that end, over the course of 2023, CCC and its partners will organise, fund and facilitate a number of learning opportunities, physical and online, that include trainings on the CCC Urgent Appeals system, trainings on digital security, thematic learning sessions in annual CCC regional meetings, public webinars, fundraising trainings, and communication, social media and (digital) campaigning trainings. On a longer term basis, CCC’s Global Strategic Framework, which reflects our aims, strategies and methods for the period 2021 to 2026, has a very strong MEL component built in, which will allow us to learn and adapt the work of the network. In 2023, like every year, all CCC network collective entities (Regional Coalitions and Working International Groups, as well as the International Office) will submit their annual plans. The PMEL group will organise a process that highlights the opportunities for synergies and facilitates joint strategising and projects. In addition, the progress from the previous year will be evaluated and the network will try to identify the main factors behind our successes, what contributed to certain objectives not being achieved, and what lessons can be learned, what best practices to be repeat, and what mistakes to avoid.
Process
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lines of work in which FGG members and partners build upon gender analysis and incorporate gender justice in their strategy
CCC has been advocating for the HREDD legislation to integrate a gender perspective. In the global textile production industry, more than 80% of workers are women (ILO, 2019). According to recent studies (Femnet and BCWS, 2020), 75% of them regularly experience gender-based violence in the factories. Gender-based violence, physical harassment and economic injustice in the world of work are among the most pervasive human rights violations: thus, preventing violence against women in textile factories is crucial in order to empower these workers and allow them to work in dignity and to avoid underpayment, violence and sexist employment requirements. Legislation, also in the European Union, plays a role to help achieve this. We are working to address gender-specific considerations and obligations in the upcoming legislation within the Sustainable Corporate Governance Reform Initiative and push for the ratification of ILO C190 by all EU Member States as a concrete way to remedy and redress GBV. On the International Women Human Rights Defenders Day, Clean Clothes Campaign co-signed with 60 other organisations a letter addressed to the EU, calling on them to ensure that the future legislation on human rights and environmental due diligence and corporate accountability legislation is gender-responsive.
Our partner Migrant Forum Asia and the Cross-Regional Center for Refugees and Migrants formally launched the Migrant Women Forum (MWF), a loose network that seeks to work specifically on the issues of women, gender, and migration, mainly in this particular corridor of Asia and the Middle East. The launch webinar assessed how COVID 19 is affecting women migrant workers, explored COVID-19-related developments in the Asia-Middle East corridor, and identified support and services that are in place.
No input
Given that the vast majority of garment workers around the world are female, CCC’s bottom-up, worker-centred analysis and campaigns have a strong gender lens. Women workers often have little voice and influence in their workplaces. They are often denied the right to join a union or to organise. The unequal power of women garment workers in relation to men and their employers, both at work and in the community, is at the heart of the injustices and deprivations they experience.
Among other things, CCC :
• takes gender perspectives into account in all its work and address issues influenced by gender;
• includes gender considerations in all its activities, particularly policy and campaign work, and highlights gender discrimination experienced by women workers;
• works to make the experiences, needs, and struggles of women workers at all levels of garment production visible, particularly those at the bottom of supply chains, such as home-based workers, and push for recognition of their status as workers.
In addition, CCC continued to advocate for the human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) legislation to integrate a gender perspective. According to recent studies, 75% of female garment workers regularly experience gender-based violence in the factories. Gender-based violence, physical harassment and economic injustice in the world of work are among the most pervasive human rights violations: thus, preventing violence against women in textile factories is crucial in order to empower these workers and allow them to work in dignity and to avoid underpayment, violence and sexist employment requirements. Legislation, also in the European Union, plays a role to help achieve this. CCC works to address gender-specific considerations and obligations in the upcoming legislation within the Sustainable Corporate Governance Reform Initiative and push for the ratification of ILO C190 by all EU Member States as a concrete way to remedy and redress GBV.
Given that the vast majority of garment workers around the world are female, CCC’s bottom-up, worker-centred analysis and campaigns have a strong gender lens. Women workers have little voice and influence in their workplaces. They are often denied the right to join a union or to organise. The unequal power of women garment workers in relation to men and their employers, both at work and in the community, is at the heart of the injustices and deprivations they experience. Among other things, CCC : - takes gender perspectives into account in all its work and address issues influenced by gender; - include gender considerations in all its activities, particularly policy and campaign work, and highlights gender discrimination experienced by women workers - works to make the experiences, needs, and struggles of women workers at all levels of garment production visible, particularly those at the bottom of supply chains, such as home-based workers, and push for recognition of their status as workers. In addition, CCC will continue to advocate for the human rights and environmental due diligence (HREDD) legislation to integrate a gender perspective. According to recent studies, 75% of female garment workers regularly experience gender-based violence in the factories. Gender-based violence, physical harassment and economic injustice in the world of work are among the most pervasive human rights violations: thus, preventing violence against women in textile factories is crucial in order to empower these workers and allow them to work in dignity and to avoid underpayment, violence and sexist employment requirements. Legislation, also in the European Union, plays a role to help achieve this. CCC works to address gender-specific considerations and obligations in the upcoming legislation within the Sustainable Corporate Governance Reform Initiative and push for the ratification of ILO C190 by all EU Member States as a concrete way to remedy and redress GBV.
Process
process
o
From our Urgent Appeal cases and the strategic cases of our #PayYourWorkers – #RespectLabourRights campaign, to the implementation of the Bangladesh Accord and the expansion of the programme to other countries, to leveraging the EU’s GSP and EBA trade systems, CCC member organisations in garment production countries (e.g Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Indonesia, Sri Lanka etc) are actively engaged in the strategy and implementation of all these efforts. Examples include:
- Local trade unions, with presence in work places where labour rights violations are taking place, lead the strategy and engagement with stakeholders (factory owners, brands etc) in order to achieve remedy
- The aim to expand the ground breaking, legally binding programme for factory health and safety from Bangladesh to another country has been – and will continue to be – spearheaded by the local CCC partners through research, lobbying and joint strategising
- CCC has facilitated, and will continue to do so, the coming together of our partners in Myanmar so they can discuss and agree on an international lobbying strategy that will put pressure on the country’s military regime
CCC is a genuinely democratic, participatory network that operates with consensus decision-making processes. Our network model, which was first implemented in 2015 and has since then been fine-tuned, moved CCC from a European-centred coalition working with partners in producing countries to a global network of 240+ organisations (trade unions, labour and human rights organisations, women’s rights organisations etc.) and expert individuals in 44 countries, with multiple Regional Coalitions: South Asia, South-East Asia, East Asia and Europe, which includes the subgroup of the European Production Focused Group (Eastern Europe and Turkey). These coalitions are the key decision-making entities for their region in terms of priorities, strategies and implementation, and CCC facilitates their functioning – and cross-regional collaboration – through financial and logistical support, secure communication platforms, knowledge sharing and coordination. Next to the regional coalitions, our thematic Working International Groups (WIGs), which consist of (on average 20-40) participants from various organisations across the CCC network, are the planning, strategising and decision-making entities for all the main areas of our work: urgent appeals, wages (currently focused on our Pay Your Workers/Respect Labour Rights campaign), worker safety (currently focused on the Accord), transparency, gender, mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence etc. Since anyone from a network organisation can join a WIG, our Southern partners are strongly represented in these groups, and all decisions are consensus-based.
Since the military took power in Myanmar, the country has witnessed a brutal crackdown on civil society, with the country’s labour movement a particular target. For CCC this raised the question whether we lobby for comprehensive economic sanctions against the regime and a call for garment brands that produce in the country to leave, since exercising due diligence in their supply chain has become very difficult. The decision not to do this was the direct result of an in-depth consultation with our partners in Myanmar. This consultation process is ongoing and all future CCC positions will be similarly determined by the positions of our member organisations in the countries concerned.
The Urgent Appeals system is a cornerstone of the work of CCC: achieving remedy in specific cases of labour and human rights violations in the workplace. It is our partners in garment producing countries, as representatives of garment factory workers, that will establish and bring forward a case. They will work with dedicated CCC urgent appeal coordinators to push the supplier and/or the garment brands producing in the factory to rectify the situation, either by behind-the-scenes negotiations or by public campaigning.
CCC is a genuinely democratic, participatory network that operates with consensus decision-making processes. Our network model, which was implemented a few years ago, moved CCC from a European-centred coalition working with partners in producing countries to a global network of 240+ organisations (trade unions, labour and human rights organisations, women’s rights organisations etc.) and expert individuals in 44 countries, with multiple Regional Coalitions: South Asia, South-East Asia, East Asia and Europe, which includes the subgroup of the European Production Focused Group (Eastern Europe and Turkey). These coalitions are the key decision-making entities for their region in terms of priorities, strategies and implementation, and CCC facilitates their functioning – and cross-regional collaboration – through financial and logistical support, secure communication platforms, knowledge sharing and coordination. Next to the regional coalitions, our thematic Working International Groups (WIGs), which consist of (on average 20-40) participants from various organisations across the CCC network, are the planning, strategising and decision-making entities for all the main areas of our work: urgent appeals, wages (currently focused on our Pay Your Workers/Respect Labour Rights campaign), worker safety (currently focused on the Accord), transparency, gender, mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence etc. Since anyone from a network organisation can join a WIG, our Southern partners are strongly represented in these groups, and all decisions are consensus-based. Since the military took power in Myanmar, the country has witnessed a brutal crackdown on civil society, with the country’s labour movement a particular target. For CCC this raised the question whether we lobby for comprehensive economic sanctions against the regime and a call for garment brands that produce in the country to leave, since exercising due diligence in their supply chain has become very difficult. The decision not to do this was the direct result of an in-depth consultation with our partners in Myanmar. This consultation process is ongoing and all future CCC positions will be similarly determined by the positions of our member organisations in the countries concerned. The Urgent Appeals system is a cornerstone of the work of CCC: achieving remedy in specific cases of labour and human rights violations in the workplace. It is our partners in garment producing countries, as representatives of garment factory workers, that will establish and bring forward a case. They will work with dedicated CCC urgent appeal coordinators to push the supplier and/or the garment brands producing in the factory to rectify the situation, either by behind-the-scenes negotiations or by public campaigning.
From our Urgent Appeal cases and the strategic cases of our #PayYourWorkers – #RespectLabourRights campaign, to the implementation of the Bangladesh Accord and the expansion of the programme to other countries, to leveraging the EU’s GSP and EBA trade systems, CCC member organisations in garment production countries (e.g Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar, Indonesia, Sri Lanka etc) are actively engaged in the strategy and implementation of all these efforts. Examples include:
- Local trade unions, with presence in work places where labour rights violations are taking place, lead the strategy and engagement with stakeholders (factory owners, brands etc) in order to achieve remedy
- The aim to expand the ground breaking, legally binding programme for factory health and safety from Bangladesh to another country has been – and will continue to be – spearheaded by the local CCC partners through research, lobbying and joint strategising
- CCC has facilitated, and will continue to do so, the coming together of our partners in Myanmar so they can discuss and agree on an international lobbying strategy that will put pressure on the country’s military regime