News

Finance and General Administrator (0.4 FTE @£19 945 p.a. pro rata (JNC scale 8)

We are looking for a flexible and well organised finance and general administrator to support our Director in delivering projects both here in the UK and internationally. At the moment we have resource for a part time (14 hours/week) position, but there may be scope to increase this in the future, depending on funding and the post holder’s situation.

This role will provide administrative support for our Hidden Homeworkers project in South Asia (tasks include maintaining monitoring and financial records and support with event organisation), as well as routine admin support for HWW as an organisation (eg. running the office, organising and minuting trust meetings). The postholder will bring strong administrative skills, with solid experience in using word processing, spreadsheets, e mail and the internet, with a calm and methodical approach and the ability to work independently on occasions. Ideally, they will also have experience of book-keeping, event organisation, and/or social media and updating websites.

The position will be based at HWW’s offices in Leeds and there can be some flexibility re. days/hours work, to suit the needs of the postholder.

Closing Date: midnight on 13th February 2020

Interview: 21 February 2020 in Leeds

Download a Job Pack for the position from our Resources page, or via this link:

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Homeworkers Worldwide is now working with Traidcraft Exchange and HomeNet South Asia on their Hidden Homeworkers project, to improve the working conditions for homeworkers in apparel and footwear supply chains in India, Pakistan and Nepal.

Hidden Homeworkers is a four-year programme, co-funded by the European Union, that aims to work collaboratively with brands and multi-stakeholder initiatives to map supply chains down to the homeworker level. 

Under the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs), brands have a responsibility to conduct human rights due diligence across their supply chains, but without transparency to the level of homeworkers this is not possible: Hidden Homeworkers seeks to rectify this.

The programme will help brands introduce simple systems that document homeworkers’ contribution and wages, and develop action plans that drive transparency, best practices and improve working conditions.

For more information, see the flyer attached, or contact Lucy Brill at Homeworkers Worldwide.

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Peter Williams for HWW is publishing a blog on the Ethical Trading Initiative website today, highlighting the learning from our 2018 Innovations Fund project documenting working conditions in footwear supply chains, both within the factories and for homeworkers stitching leather uppers.

This was carried out in partnership with Cividep India and the Dalit Solidarity Network and two ETI member companies and their respective suppliers, with financial support from the ETI’s Innovation Fund.

The full report, entitled Due Diligence in Tamil nadu leather footwear manufacture, is also available on our website.

HWW is keen to work with other companies sourcing leather footwear from Tamil Nadu; please contact lucy Brill on lucy(at)homeworkersww.org.uk for more information.

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HWW is publishing today a report of our scoping study on working conditions in the textile and garment manufacturing industry within Greater Manchester. Thanks to everyone who helped us complete this study, particularly the workers and employers we spoke to, and the community workers and activists who helped us make contact with them, particularly Sandra Penaloza Rice and her colleagues at Migrants Support.

The report provides evidence that confirmed that the low wage rates (around £4/hour) and double accounting systems found by Professor Hammer in Leicester in 2015 were also present in sections of the industry in Greater Manchester. Small manufacturers also highlighted the challenges they faced, due to large retailers’ unfair purchasing practices, which included driving down prices to levels where it was impossible for them to pay their workers properly and leaving invoices unpaid for several months at a time.

We also highlight the importance of further research to enable workers voices to be heard in the debate to improve working conditions within UK manufacturing, and to prioritise our provisional policy recommendations. These include the importance of accessible employment rights advice backed up by effective enforcement services, that operate independently of immigration controls. Large retailers particularly those who value the flexibility and fact turnaround that local manufacturers can provide, need to recognise their responsibilities, and support their much smaller UK based suppliers to provide decent working conditions and a sustainable future for the UK industry.

HWW would be very keen to collaborate with others to find ways to extend this work. Please contact Lucy Brill at lucy(at)homeworkersww.org.uk to find out more.

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We have just published a Biannual Report covering our work in 2017 and 2018. To find out more about our key areas of work and our plans for the future you can read the full document in our Resources section.

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