Levi's, H&M, Inditex top Fashion Transparency Index

26 Apr '16

5 min read

Only five brands (Adidas, H&M, Levi Strauss & Co, Nike – which includes Converse) reflect best practice in holding a publicly available list of all or the vast majority of their CMT suppliers. Twenty four companies state that they track their suppliers and/or their locations, but do not publish this information publicly.

Only two companies (Adidas and H&M) publish details of their second-tier suppliers (fabric and yarn mills or subcontractors). However, the majority of the 40 companies surveyed appear to have little or nothing in place to demonstrate that they monitor where raw materials and other resources (such as zips and other component parts) come from.

Only 11 of the companies in the Index show evidence of working with trade unions, civil society or NGOs on the ground in supplier countries to improve working conditions.

Nineteen of the companies surveyed (40 per cent) do not appear to have a system in place to monitor compliance with labour standards and to continually improve standards, both at Board level (eg. an executive corporate responsibility committee) and at departmental level (eg. a Social Responsibility team).

Human rights and environmental protection should be the responsibility of company executives as well as at department level. In addition 15 companies (38 per cent) show no evidence of incorporating labour standards into buying practices.

Thirty per cent of the companies do not appear to have whistleblowing or confidential complaint mechanisms in place for workers in their supply chain, or at least none that they mention publicly. This means that workers may have little chance to speak up about poor conditions or abuse, or may not be able to do so without fear of repercussion.

The Fashion Transparency Index lists some positive examples such as supplier clusters.

Inditex has 10 supplier clusters in the geographic areas in which it has a larger and stronger presence: Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Turkey (these four countries comprise about 60 per cent of the company's supply chain); India, South East Asia, Bangladesh, China, Brazil and Argentina. These clusters covered 91 per cent of Inditex's production in 2014 and "are regularly consistently under review". Through these clusters, Inditex works with trade unions, NGOs and civil society on labour rights.

When it comes to publishing factory lists, Adidas publishes a list of subcontractors (eg. specialist printing, mould production, or embroidery services) as well as a CMT list on its website. H&M has mapped 99 per cent of its production volume, publicly publishes 95 per cent of its first tier CMT list and 35 per cent of its fabric and yarn suppliers. In this area both Adidas and H&M demonstrated the highest levels of transparency of all 40 companies in this Index. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk - India

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