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Innovative responses to Covid-19 from Homeworker organisations

As we have highlighted in earlier updates, the Covid-19 crisis has hit homeworkers' hard, as factories lose overseas orders and close due to lockdowns, leaving informal homeworkers without work and also denied access to social security. This update from Traidcraft Exchange who is leading our Hidden Homeworkers project, highlights some of the ways the ways in which our local partners have adapted project activities to respond to the Covid 19 crisis.

There's also a great blog published here (https://www.wiego.org/blog/innovation-and-unity-how-home-based-workers-are-adapting-covid-19-world), reviewing some innovative responses to the crisis by homeworker organsiations in other parts of the world.

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What does due diligence for supply chains using Homeworkers look like?

HWW has today published a factsheet, highlighting the different stages in the journey towards the decent employment of homeworkers, and listing the actions that brands can take to safeguard this vulnerable group of women workers. We are also aware that some brands have been working with their suppliers to address homeworking issues for some time. Through the Hidden Homeworkers project, we are currently documenting case studies and examples of good practice, to produce a Toolkit that brings together and shares the learning and proven steps which companies can take to improve the employment conditions of the homeworkers in their supply chains. Contact lucy(at)homeworkersww.org.uk if you have a case study to contribute to this exciting initiative.

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Better wages for homeworkers in Tamil Nadu footwear chains

I'm proud to be publishing today the results of our Consultation exercise in 2019, with homeworkers stitching shoes for Pentland Brands in Tamil Nadu. Homeworkers Worldwide worked with our partners Cividep India to trace homeworkers in this supply chain. Tme and motion studies were carried out to establish a fair piece rate for the hand stitching work, and homeworkers' wages subsequently increased in line with this. Our final confirmation exercise with all stakeholders including the homeworkers confirmed that homeworkers' piece rates rose by one third on average, a substantial increase for these low paid women workers. The study also highlighted the importance of brands sourcing from the region to work collaboratively to maintain these gains and extend them to other suppliers. Please get in touch with lucy at homeworkersww.org.uk to find out more about this initiative.

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Find out more about our Hidden Homeworkers Project

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 that aims to work collaboratively with brands and multi-stakeholder initiatives to map supply chains down to the homeworker level. 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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Due diligence in Tamil Nadu leather footwear manufacture

HWW is publishing our Human Rights Due Diligence monitoring report on the leather footwear industry in eastern Tamil Nadu. This summarises the key learnings from our 2018 project funded by the Ethical Trading Initiative's Innovation Fund, which worked with two ETI retailers sourcing from these supply chains, highlighting labour rights risks for both homeworkers and factory workers, many of whom are women, involved in footwear manufacturing in South India.

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Greater Manchester textile and garment industry: a scoping study

This is a report of an initial scoping study documenting working conditions within the textile and garment industry (TGI) within Greater Manchester, based on fieldwork carried out in 2017, funded by the British Cotton Growing Association Work People’s Collection Fund. The report highlights 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. 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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Case closed, problems persist

This paper published in June 2018, investigates how Social Accountability International (SAI) – a social certification organisation for factories and organisations, and the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) – an alliance of companies, trade unions and voluntary organisations working to improve the lives of workers – have dealt with concrete complaints about abusive labour conditions in the textile and garment industry in South India. The report was written by Homeworkers Worldwide (HWW), the India Committee of the Netherlands (ICN) and the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO). The authors looked at how concrete complaints were dealt by ETI and SAI respectively and whether their complaints systems meet the standards of the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights. We hope that this report will contribute to on going debates about how multi-stakeholder initiatives and companies concerned to improve working conditions in global supply chains can respond more effectively to grievances raised by workers and organisations seeking to represent them.

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Good Employment for Homeworkers

This summary report describes the first phase of our on-going project with Pentland Brands, tracing the homeworkers within their leather footwear supply chain in South India.

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