Clean Clothes Campaign in support of garment industry workers gains momentum
27 October 2020: The national kit of the England football team at the 2018 World Cup, embellished with a well-known sportswear brand logo and the most expensive England kit ever. They were sold to fans for as much as €180 – while the workers in Bangladesh who made them were earning less than €2 per day.
So, Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) is a global network dedicated to improving working conditions and empowering workers in the global garment and sportswear industries. Since 1989, CCC has worked to ensure that the fundamental rights of workers are respected. The global garment industry has doubled over the past 15 years and is powered by an estimated 60 million-strong workforce. Clean Clothes Campaign brings together more than 230 organisations covering a broad spectrum of perspectives and interests, such as women’s rights, consumer advocacy and poverty reduction.
A campaign has been launched that calls on brands to take responsibility for textile staff and make sure their job is paid for. The Clean Clothes Movement encouraged textile producers and retailers to dedicate themselves to pay assurance: public participation that workers in its manufacturing chains be paying as due and talks should be pursued to set up a fund to discourage workers from being left unpaid without their legal severance. The initiative for the wages of your employees, based on H&M, Primark and Nike, was introduced – three companies most widely mentioned in workers’ accounts of violations of employee’s rights in the pandemic.
UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights clearly state the role and responsibilities of businesses to respect the human right to fair wages. This responsibility “exists independently of States’ abilities and/or willingness to fulfil their own human rights obligations … And it exists over and above compliance with national laws and regulations protecting human rights.”
Reportedly, Garment workers have been left unpaid, jobless, or received only a percentage of their usual poverty wages after global fashion brands refused to pay for over $16 billion worth of goods. Now workers are owed at least $3.19 to $5.79 billion for the first three months of the pandemic alone.
