In the apparel value chain ‘home workers’ have long been accepted as skilled workers; mostly women who do handwork from their homes and some doing it from remote villages for exporters who are supplying to international markets. While social compliances, code of conducts and the growing demand for better working conditions have had a major impact on workers in factory environment, home workers have remained largely untouched by labour reforms. Now with global retailers looking deeper into the supply chain, beyond the factories, the focus of attention has expanded to include sub-contractors and home workers.
Supported by 15 sourcing offices around the world, production for H&M takes place at around 1,800 factories that are owned or subcontracted by 785 suppliers. Looking for long-term partnerships with suppliers, the company engages in strategic partnerships with the best ones, rewarding good sustainability performance with better business. As a result, currently 148 strategic partners (19 per cent) make 53 per cent of H&M products.
As people spend a large part of their lives at work, the work environment has become one of the most critical factors for determining employee satisfaction these days. Many companies have already understood the importance of employee engagement and have started working towards building up a positive and motivating work environment that also spells success for the organization. One such recent effort is the in-house newsletter ‘GUPSHUP’ launched by Bangalore based Go Go International. The force behind the initiative, Lalita Goenka, Director, Go Go International shares the journey of the newsletter and how it has acted as a binding thread for the employees, management and even buyers.
Off-late the working ethics of NGOs has been under fire and the same made headlines in 2012, with demands that the funding and accounts of NGOs should be open to scrutiny. Though the industry has accepted these NGOs to be an integral part of the industry, their ‘working’ style has raised many questions of accountability and transparency in their actions.
The International Asia Floor Wage Alliance in collaboration with Indian garment workers’ trade unions and workers’ rights groups, recently held deliberations in Bangalore under the aegis of The ‘National People’s Tribunal on the Right to a Living Wage’. While the call to participate to all leading brands and retailers was well received, GAP Inc. chose to stay way, irking local trade unionists. ‘If brands like GAP refuse to take part in worker-led processes that could see real change fostered in the industry, these problems will never be solved.
Established in 2003 by the ’78 batch of IIM, Ahmedabad with an initiative to provide education to girls from remote areas who are willing to study but are denied the same due to financial constraints, the program IIMPACT recently celebrated its ten years journey. The emotional ceremony held at the Westin hotel in Gurgaon was marked by the release of a special social impact study, ‘10th Anniversary of IIMPACT – Making a Difference’ by the Chief Guest Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, Mumbai based Investor and CEO – Rare Enterprises, who has been supporting the cause for a long time now and is today the single largest donor of IIMPACT. In a moving speech, Rakesh addressed the gathering committed to support the girls who have the desire to study further but cannot due to financial constraints.
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