EU citizens demand law on fair wages in global fashion industry

20 Jul '22

2 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

The European Citizens’ Initiative (ECI) has launched the ‘Good Clothes, Fair Pay’ campaign to demand legislation on the living wages for garment workers. The ECI wants European Union (EU) laws to make it compulsory for companies selling garments, textiles, and footwear in the EU to regulate living wages in their supply chains. If this law gets passed, brands and retailers would be legally mandated to evaluate wages, and publicly disclose their development.

The year-long campaign requires at least one million signatures from EU citizens to appeal to the European Commission to establish laws on the issue of wages in the fashion industry, according to a press release issued by Fashion Revolution. A coalition of citizens, supported by NGOs, policymakers, and experts on living wages is behind the initiative.

Currently, many garment workers around the world earn poverty wages even as brands continue to rake in high profits. The workers, who are mostly women, earn on average 45 per cent less than what they require to support themselves and their families. The EU fashion industry alone employs 1.5 million people and many of them are not paid living wages, the release said.

The EU is the world’s largest importer of clothes and one of the largest fashion consumer markets — more than €260 billion in sales are anticipated in 2022. This places the onus on the EU to tackle these inequitable standards, the release added.

“For too long, brands have promised to do the right thing. They mostly haven’t. We cannot wait any longer for voluntary measures. As EU citizens, we have the power to change this and give garment workers a decent pay for their hard day’s work. For real, industry-wide change, fashion companies need to be held accountable,” said Kirsten Kossen, senior advisor human rights at ASN Bank and member of the ECI’s Citizens’ Committee.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)

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