HWW is proud to be publishing two new Resources on Homeworking within the Leather Footwear Sector within South India.
The first, Good Employment for Homeworkers, is a summary report, published in collaboration with Pentland Brands, describes the first phase of our on-going project tracing some of the homeworkers within their leather footwear supply chain, whilst the second, Recognition for women homeworkers: Responding to Homeworking in Leather Footwear, provides a more detailed look at our recent work with homeworkers in Ambur in Tamil Nadu, in partnership with Cividep.
HWW responds to ETI’s outcome statement, re. forced and bonded labour in Tamil Nadu supply chains
Homeworkers Worldwide (HWW) wishes to respond to the statement on the ETI website concerning the complaint made against two member companies of the ETI and the possibility of forced or bonded in their supply chains in Tamil Nadu, India.
Although we could make a more detailed analysis of the complaint process, at this point we want to focus on two key inaccuracies in the statement made by the ETI.
Firstly: the original complaint made in May 2015 was about two separate supply chains. HWW’s research at two garment factories showed evidence of conditions amounting to forced labour for hostel workers at these factories which supplied a number of UK retailers. The India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) research showed evidence of forced or bonded labour in a mill which was part of the supply chain of a different retailer. While some of the other retailers had responded to our concerns, we made a complaint to the ETI about two retailers, members of the ETI, who had not responded. Neither HWW nor ICN had evidence of conditions in the spinning mill mentioned in the ETI statement.
Secondly: HWW did not agree that a satisfactory solution was found to resolve the complaint. Given that there were disagreements about the presence of forced or bonded labour in both supply chains concerned, an independent investigation was needed, in the opinion of HWW, to establish the facts of the matter. This was discussed at some length and a proposal made for how this should be carried out. In spite of these discussions, in the end there was no agreement on the need for this investigation. HWW agreed to close the complaint process, which had already taken nearly two years, because we did not see a solution coming from it. Although we welcomed the participation of the companies concerned in the Tamil Nadu working group of the ETI, we did not consider this adequate to addressing the problem.
HWW Seminar: Human Rights redress and transnational business
Annie Delaney, who played a leading role in the Australian Fairwear Campaign in the mid 2000s, as an organiser with the garment union the TCFUA, is visiting the UK in July.
We’re looking forward to welcoming Annie here in Leeds, where she’ll be presenting her recent research on
Non-legal redress mechanisms in securing Human Rights in relation to Transnational Business, at this event.
Friday 7th July, 3 – 5pm. Seminar.
Leeds Church Institute, 20 New Market St, Leeds LS1 6DG
To be followed by Questions & Discussion.
Refreshments provided. Open to all but please e mail lucybrill3(at)gmail.com to book a place.
For more information about this research project, check out this link:
Looking forward to our Employment Rights Workshop tomorrow!
Homeworkers Worldwide is co-ordinating an Employment Rights workshop for migrant workers, on Saturday, 17th June, 12-1pm, at Migrant Rights Network’s ‘One Stop Shop’ day long event for mobile EU citizens, at William Kay House, 327 Oxford Rd., M13 9PG. See link below for more information.
Thanks to Migrants Support, the University of Manchester Legal advice centre, USDAW and IWW for supporting us with this event!
Indian activists from our partners Cividep speaking in Manchester on 12th May
Gopinath and Brinda from our partners Cividep in Bangalore South India will be visiting the UK in May, and they’ll be speaking in Manchester on May 12th, and in London the week after.
Hua Wei from the Centre for Socio-cultural Change at the University of Manchester will also be participating, on garment manufacturing in the UK, together with speakers from Labour behind the Label, Women Working Worldwide and Homeworkers’ WorldWide.
We’re very happy to be working with Labour behind the Label and the Change your Shoes campaign to organise this Panel Discussion at Bridge5Mill on Friday 12th May, from 2-4pm. Everyone Welcome!