• Linkdin

Is garment workers safety priority for apparel retailers?

27 Oct '12
9 min read

“We believe there are many opportunities for us to fashion a brighter future; our overall Fashion Footprint vision is ‘to produce fashionable products in an ethical way and demonstrate a responsible attitude towards people and the environment”, it adds by saying.

Following the recent fire tragedy in Pakistan, another UK apparel retailer – Next,  has undertaken pro-active work to further assure the management of safety for workers making Next products, apart from its ‘Supplier Code of Practice’ for factories from which it sources goods.

The Next ‘Supplier Code of Practice’ is prescriptive and includes specific clauses on; working conditions, fire safety/evacuation procedures, medical programmes, chemical safety, equipment/machinery, electrical safety, manual handling, job hazard assessments, residential accommodation and environmental protection standards.

According to Next, its business rules dictate that life threatening working conditions will result either in orders not being placed or business being immediately suspended until the issues are rectified. For less serious issues, NEXT supports its suppliers and give a timeframe of up to 6 months for rectification to take place.

Under the news safety measures initiated recently, under phase-1, selected factories in Pakistan, India and Bangladesh producing Next products have already been sent an information pack that focuses on potential health and safety risks and requires the supplier to audit their factories and then send the findings which will be completed by the end of November 2012.

A selection of factories will then have a follow up audit by its teams, to ensure that corrective action plans and measures have been implemented. In phase-2, it will be sending the same information pack to its remaining suppliers, which will be followed up and is scheduled to complete by the end of 2012

Under another ongoing program, Next will develop understanding of the root causes of the safety failures of the Bangladesh garment industry. Eastablish what improvements are needed, what roles do the different stakeholders need to play in bringing about these improvements, and what support do they need to undertake.

Timberland, a US based retailer, developed a ‘Code of Conduct’ way back in 1994 and claims that it has a long-standing history of ensuring that its products are produced by suppliers that provide fair, safe, and non-discriminatory workplaces, without harm to workers or their communities, and use environmentally responsible facilities and processes.

Timerland proudly says that all this has ensured that a fire has not yet taken place, in any of the supplier factories which supply products to Timberland. Timberland says that, it has employed a dedicated team to actively monitor factory conditions, work with suppliers on remediation efforts, and go beyond factory walls to improve workers’ lives.

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