Fair Purchasing Practices in Garment Supply Chains: Connecting Theory and Practice

Matthew Anderson, University of Portsmouth, [email protected]

Tamsin Bradley, University of Portsmouth, [email protected]

Sutirtha Sahariah, Independent Researcher, [email protected]

This paper builds on the findings of a recently completed study commissioned by Transform Trade and the Fair Trade Advocacy Office to review supply chain responses to unfair trading practices (UTPs) in textile value chains. Our report presents a case study analysis of emerging best practices in terms of companies implementing fair purchasing practices. The scope of the work was broad and the case studies aim to capture best practices across a range of areas including: lead times, payment details, prices, discounts, technical specifications, volumes and stock management.

The full report is divided into three main sections. Firstly, we consider the experience of work in garment supply chains informed by a longitudinal study of community narratives of female workers based in Delhi and Bangalore, India. In the second part, we investigate the challenges of unfair purchasing practices and the experiences of SMEs operating in global value chains. In the third part, we focus on putting principles into practice and explore innovative examples of responsible purchasing practices.

Our study investigated the supply chains of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and their role in creating an enabling environment for fair purchasing practices in the garment and textiles sector. In this paper, we particularly focus on the experience of Fair Trade organisations and how they have translated Fair Trade principles into practice in their value chains. We argue that, if supported, Fair Trade organisations have the potential to be industry front-runners and demonstrate fair purchasing practices that can be replicated and scaled across the garment sector.

Recruitment under surveillance? Contribution to a sociology of recruitment in global chains through the prism of corporate due diligence

Magali Croese
PhD Student at Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers (CNAM, Paris),
Member of LISE (joint research unit CNAM-CNRS), [email protected]

Corporations and governments are urged to take actions to protect human rights in global supply chains. Countries around the world are indeed legislating to expand company's responsibility outside its walls¹. Before due diligence obligations were adopted, corporate social responsibility (CSR) already forged new relationships between activists, corporations and CSR service providers. When voluntary CSR engagement turned into legal requirements in some countries, social practices were generated with a performative effect on evolving norms. With the rise of corporate due diligence and duty of vigilance acts, this managerialization of laws continues within corporate spaces and beyond. Transnational corporations adopt private standards to comply with these new regulations and require their subcontractors and suppliers the same compliance wherever they operate. But this transnational governance has shown its limits: the capacity of workers to seize these rights and organize to defend them cannot be built outside the domestic governance. In fact, literature shows that private transnational standards circumvent the governance of local institutions and ignore the network of social agents evolving outside the walls of the company. Little work has been released about how workers and the other actors in global supply chains interact with these new regulations and corporate practices in Asia, and merely none on specific and detailed processes like the regulated recruitment of migrant workers. Our work unveils the forms of ethicalization that occur within the migration industry in Asia, looking especially at the migrant workers’ mobility when recruited abroad. Through chains crossing several geographies, from client companies in France to factory workers recruited in Nepal, through vendors’ production plants in Malaysia, our research pinpoints first the tension between the increasing obligation of control along global supply chains and their extreme flexibility. It also sheds light on the emergence of the ethical (or fair) professionals as a new category of social agents alongside the traditional brokers in Asia, while revealing the (forgotten) agency of the recruited workers whose rights protection is debated at domestic and transnational levels. 

Nikah Siri and temporality: Indonesian Migrant Workers’ Intimacy and Mobility in Taiwan

Isabelle Cockel, University of Portsmouth, UK

Jonathan Parhusip, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan 

This research addresses a critical question: How do Indonesian migrant workers navigate the conflict between securing employment and engaging in intimate relationships while working abroad?  Using the experiences of Indonesian workers in Taiwan as a case study, this research argues that Nikah Siri, an unregistered marriage conducted according to Islamic rituals, is employed by couples as a temporary solution to alleviate feelings of shame (zina) and to reduce the stigma associated with children born out of non-marital sexual relationships. However, Nikah Siri is a double-edged sword. While it temporarily frees couples from restrictive social norms, it also exposes them to the governmentality of both Taiwan and Indonesia. This is especially significant for migrant women, who may face the stigma of pre- or extramarital pregnancy, and for children whose rights to nationality and a secure upbringing may be jeopardized. 

Developing Ethical Migrant Worker Recruitment in Asia: Reality, Rhetoric and the Way Forward

Andy Hall, Human rights defender and independent migrant worker rights specialist 

International Migrant Worker Rights Specialist Andy Hall will discuss the current and dire migrant worker recruitment situation across Asia, focusing particularly on his experiences of researching and advocating on illicit and unethical recruitment practices involving vulnerable migrant workers from Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nepal and Vietnam migrating to work in Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK and across the Gulf and Middle East. He will discuss his on the ground experiences of planning, managing and implementing Responsible Recruitment projects for migrant workers working for suppliers in global supply chains for companies in Malaysia and Thailand, whilst outlining the key markers utilized in his recently published guidance note on responsible recruitment for the FLA. This will be a practical talk focusing on practical steps that can be taken by actors seeking to promote responsible recruitment globally. 

Andy is a human rights defender and independent specialist in migrant worker rights, based in Asia since 2005. With experience in the UK, Thailand, and Myanmar, he is widely recognised as a migration and human rights advocate. Andy has served as a foreign expert in migration at Mahidol University’s Institute for Population and Social Research and frequently addresses the EU Parliament on migrant rights and modern-day slavery.