2021 Apparel and Footwear Benchmark Report

Where labor rights abuses are identified at a subcontractor, it is important that remedy is provided to impacted workers, as ensuring the subcontractor is authorized is not the responsibility of workers. What should be the norm is only practiced sporadically: for example, the US sportswear company Brooks was highlighted by the investigative organization Transparentem for […]

A global call for full supply chain transparency in the clothing sector

This week, the world remembers the Rana Plaza tragedy. On 24 April 2013 more than a thousand workers lost their… life in what was, in essence, a preventable accident. The accident shook the world and put a spotlight on the unsafe conditions faced by workers in global garment supply chains. The fashion industry responded by […]

Mind the Gap: Migrant Workers Need Respect for Rights, Not Commitments on Paper

In spring 2018, Transparentem, an NGO focused on investigating labor rights abuses, approached apparel companies with forced labor findings at… Malaysian factories. Such findings are not new; the organization also noted that similar findings and mistreatment of migrant workers had already been identified in the Malaysian apparel and footwear sector ten years earlier. In October […]

Fashion, Xinjiang and the Perils of Supply Chain Transparency

Brandie Sasser, the vice-president of strategic engagement at Transparentem, a US non-profit that investigates environmental and human rights violations in… fashion supply chains, says this is already happening. While she has seen a slew of brands move away from Xinjiang cotton since the Trump ban, “companies have been much more nervous about what they put […]

Du sang et des larmes sur les gants malaisiens

En 2019, après des mois d’enquête et de pressions, l’ONG américaine Transparentem a obtenu 1,6 million d’euros de réparations pour… 2500 immigrés employés dans l’habillement malaisien qui avaient payé pour être recrutés

Tannery Workers’ Pandemic Plight Highlights Need for Reform

Bangladesh’s tannery workers are in financial crisis due to Covid-19, but exploitative working conditions are the root of the problem… Listening to Bangladesh’s tannery workers talk about their lives during the Covid-19 pandemic is distressing and alarming. “We have cried many nights in hunger,” said one. Another dispirited worker lamented, “My life is full of […]

Out of Sight: A Call for Transparency from Field to Fabric

Supply chains in the global garment and textiles industry are long, complex, fragmented, continuously evolving and notoriously opaque. In support… of the Tamil Nadu Declaration and Framework of Action, Fashion Revolution has conducted new research into the supply chain transparency efforts of 62 major fashion brands and retailers. The following report explores why greater transparency […]

Pay-to-play, pay-to-stay: the high cost of Indonesian apparel jobs

When Susi, a 25-year-old sewing operator in Indonesia, found work at a garment manufacturer in West Java, she paid one… month’s wages upfront to a middleman to secure her job. She quit the strenuous job within one week, but received no refund. To secure her next position, Susi repeatedly paid around a month’s wages for […]

Sourcing from Myanmar Requires Extraordinary Due Diligence. Here’s Why

As fashion brands and retailers begin to reset and reshape their supply chains as they emerge from the global coronavirus… pandemic, a new multi-year investigation has identified some of the risks at stake when sourcing from garment factories in Myanmar. Highlighted exclusively here on just-style, child labour and audit deception are among the ongoing challenges.