The influence of a button on working conditions

News

6 November 2013

Employees of European clothing brands, from designers to buyers, can play an important role in improving working conditions in garment factories worldwide. Decisions that seem relatively small, often impact greatly on the working conditions in production countries such as India, China or Bangladesh.

WellMade, an initiative by Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), SOMO and others, shows European brand employees the impact of their decisions and offers them practical guidance to help improve working conditions along the supply chain. Today, WellMade is officially launched at the international trade fair A + A in Düsseldorf, Germany.

The garment industry employs millions of people worldwide. Garment production is often associated with low wages and problems such as child labour, excessive overtime and unsafe and unhealthy working conditions. European clothing brands can play an important role in improving these conditions. Decisions made at the drawing table – a different button at last moment’s notice – can have a large impact on factory workers.

Helpful tools

WellMade provides people working for European clothing companies with tools to understand the major labour issues that they have an influence on, and how they can support better working conditions. At more than one hundred fairs across Europe, designers, salespeople, buyers and other brand employees can join free interactive WellMade sessions.

Fact sheets

SOMO is developing a series of fact sheets about specific labour issues in the garment industry, such as forced labour, child labour and unsafe factory buildings. These fact sheets offer practical recommendations for brand employees to recognize and act upon such labour issues.

About WellMade

WellMade is an initiative of Fair Wear Foundation (FWF), Christian Initiative Romero (CIR) , CNV, the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). WellMade is financed by the European Commission.