The industry of focus
The UK high street fashion industry is famously competitive. Brands including H&M, Zara and Primark battle it out for a share of the UK’s approximately €60 billion in annual clothing expenditure (Fashion United, 2013). Such brands champion a way of working termed ‘fast fashion’ – a system in which high street chains have as many as 52 micro-seasons a year, with new trends hitting the shelves weekly, rather than at the commencement of one of the four climactic seasons (Whitehead, 2014). This system makes retailers dependent on lightning-quick supplier production cycles. Critics comment that clothing is ‘designed to fall apart’ – encouraging consumers to shop for new clothes on an ever more frequent basis, with their cast –offs becoming waste in landfills (ibid.). In addition, the low cost clothing provided by many high street brands (notably Primark – where a pair of jeans can be bought for under ₤10) encourages merchandisers to scour manufacturers in low-wage developing countries for the lowest costs.
The challenge at hand
Affordable, accessible fashion has come at an ugly cost for garment industry factory workers in countries including China, India and Bangladesh. Criticism of the fashion industry has long focussed on the inadequate protection given to garment factory workers. For example, reports of pay below the minimum wage, physical abuse and child labour in Nike subcontractors’ factories abounded throughout the 1990s (Nisen, 2013).
However, the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory in Bangladesh in 2013, killing 1137 people, has brought issues of worker safety and compensation back into public focus (Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights, 2014). Workers were reportedly forced to enter the building, using threats, despite their protests regarding structural instability (ibid.). Inditex, Primark and others have been connected to factories operating in the Rana Plaza building (Clean Clothes Campaign, 2015). The owner of Rana Plaza, Sohel Hana, was found to be quite obviously at fault, and remains in prison (ibid.). However, UK high street stores are not free from blame for this incident. Why were they subcontracting to a factory owner who was infringing on human rights? Furthermore, wages paid to workers were found to be as low as 12 US cents per hour in some cases – were UK retailers subcontracting to the factory aware of this, and if not, why not? In addition, it is often the unfeasible demands placed on factories by the retailers themselves that encourage poor treatment of workers – factory owners push for longer hours and lower wages in order to meet the demands of their customers, who have multiple alternative suppliers across the globe if the factory cannot meet their cost and timing demands.
Indeed, high street UK chains are quick to point out that they do not own the factories in their supply chains, and are often not the dominant client of a factory they use (Boffey, 2013). Nevertheless, incidents like Rana Plaza have real implications for business – both in terms of public perception and the regulation that repeated incidents of this nature may necessitate. This paper will serve as a discussion of the reconstruction of value chains that must occur within the UK fashion industry. The discussion will include the criticism that has been levelled at incumbent high street brands, the changes implemented by some of these brands, an overview of a disruptive set of system builders, and recommendations on actions that must be taken by two particular stakeholders if a new system is to emerge.
Criticism of incumbents is broad in its scope. It is difficult to justify how powerful UK retailers can take no responsibility for the conditions in supplier’s factories, particularly as it is these chains that benefit from workers being paid a low living wage and inadequate attention being paid to health and safety. In a competitive market – an estimate of 5000-6000 factories in Bangladesh produce clothing for the export market (Labowitz and Baumann-Paulee, 2014) – factory owners are well aware that they do not hold negotiation power, and increases in costs will result in the defection of their customers.
Moreover, the ‘fast fashion’ phenomenon that places such high demands on suppliers is only fractionally a result of the demands of shoppers. High street brands have taken an active role in building consumer expectation and demand for weekly refreshes of their shelves. By increasing the frequency of deliveries to store they have gradually worked to shift consumers expectations as to how often new styles will be in store, and how much time consumers have to purchase these styles before they are removed. In the case of Zara, small runs are produced that sell out more quickly (Ferdows, Dominguez-Machuca and Lewis, 2003). This serves to deliberately increase consumers’ feeling of urgency when they shop. For the UK high street, the shortened lifespan of the items in consumers’ wardrobes is big business.
Moves towards change
Labour Behind the Label (LBTL), in its ‘Tailored Wages’ report, ranks retailers based on the actions that they have taken to address worker compensation that is below a living wage (rather than a minimum wage) (2014). Marks and Spencer, Spanish brand Inditex (who own Zara, Massimo Dutti and Berschka amongst other brands), German brand Switcher (Germany) and Tchibo (United Arab Emirates) came out tops in the report , falling into the category ‘On the Way – Work started to increase wages, but not enough yet’ (Labour Behind the Label, 2014).
What are these brands doing differently? Marks and Spencer term their social responsibility initiative ‘Plan A’. Under this banner they have implemented initiatives including training 391 000 workers in their ‘roles, responsibilities and rights’, with an aim to reach half a million workers with their training programme by 2015 (ibid.). In addition, the retailer has committed to assuring a living wage for supply chain workers in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka by 2015, with more countries to follow. LBTL comment, however, that Marks and Spencer did not disclose to them their definition of a living wage. These steps do not guarantee a clean bill of health for Marks and Spencer yet – and they have not set a target for this aim – but represent significant change when we acknowledge that as an organisation with over ₤10.3 billion in group revenue, M&S currently have influence on worker conditions of a breadth (though likely not a depth) that niche ‘ethical’ brands can so far only dream of.
In addition, many retail houses have signed up to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh – ‘an independent, legally binding agreement between brands and trade unions designed to work towards a safe and healthy Bangladeshi Ready-Made Garment Industry’ (Accord On Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, 2015). It is acknowledged to be a step forward in improving worker safety in Bangladesh as it is so far the only agreement to have legal teeth (Kenway, 2015). Even if effective, however, this agreement only covers one of the many developing nation manufacturing countries facing these types of challenges, and does not address wages.
The builders of a new system
Thankfully, a revolution in the fashion industry is not left to a class of rather laggard incumbents. A new cohort of retailers has emerged in the UK that focuses on the social (and environmental) impact of their operations from start to finish. People Tree is likely the best known of these. Founded by Safia Minney over 20 years ago, People Tree states that they go a step beyond ‘ethical fashion’ and ‘corporate social responsibility, to ‘only using artisans and producers who work to Fair Trade standards’ (People Tree, 2014). People Tree works closely with their suppliers, even offering them financial assistance to grow their operations. An example is Saidpur enterprises in Northern Bangladesh, which was originally founded to provide employment to refugees. Saidpur offer employee benefits including a loans service, profit share and legal and medical aid options (People Tree, 2012).
Safia Minney’s insightful 2008 Guardian article comments on difficulties in defining ethical trade – noting that it must be defined in terms of ‘what it isn’t rather than what it is’ and that what it isn’t includes demands of short lead times and playing manufacturers of clothing off of one another in order to generate shorter lead times and lower prices (Minney, 2008).
Seelos and Mair (2008) comment that building a system at the bottom of the pyramid means that resources may be difficult to acquire and must therefore be developed, which can push value creation out. Minney (2008) describes a situation where partnering directly with small, rural clothing producers has required that People Tree develop capacity in these partners, including coaching them on the types of clothing styles and fits desired by Western consumers. She also notes that creating a brand that is 100% fair trade requires revolutionary actions including paying a portion of wages upfront, and sacrificing the short turnaround times propagated by the high street (ibid.). This results in cash flow challenges and difficulty in attracting investors who are willing to wait longer for their returns to be realised (ibid.). Of course, these types of challenges have necessary impact on the ability of such brands to scale. For these brands, ‘rethinking business’ has ultimately involved sacrificing margins for the sake of the livelihoods of workers in their supply chains.
Conclusions and recommendations
The violation of the rights of workers in clothing industry supply chains is a global and intractable problem. It is certain that the true extent of this problem remains hidden. Addressing the issue successfully will require action from several parties. Below, recommendations for action will be made for two of these parties: the UK government and the new class of system changers in the UK fashion industry.
- The UK Government.
Global Labour Rights note that in the US in 2000, new imports legislation for the US clothing industry was passed within a matter of days after cat and dog fur was found to be used for the lining of coats sold in a New York Burlington Coat Factory store, and question why swift and decisive legislative action of this sort cannot be taken to prevent the importing of clothing made in conditions which violate human rights (Global Labour Rights, 2014). Legal action against companies found to be benefiting from the exploitation of factory workers – regardless of whether they own these factories or not – may be what is required to incentivise the high street to rethink their supply chains. To date, limited consumer protests, negative press and even legally binding agreements between alliance members have not been enough. If every organisation in the UK must use suppliers who pay a living wage, can guarantee health and safety and do not make use of child labour, the pressure will be there for factories in developing nations to ensure that these standards are met. Furthermore, local authorities in developing nations then become incentivised to enforce adherence to regulation – whereas it could be argued that governments of manufacturing nations are currently not incentivised to protect workers because any rise in costs may lead to the defection of UK retailers to another manufacturing country. For a country like Bangladesh, in which 4 million women alone are employed by the clothing manufacturing industry (in a country of 31 million households) factories losing clients as powerful as UK high street retailers would be devastating. This is not to say that local governments are free from responsibility even now, only that real protection of human rights will most likely require purchasing nations to build in necessary legal provisions and partner with their developing nation counterparts to create change.
This may increase costs across the board in the fashion industry, but the consumer is unlikely to suffer in any real sense of the word – given that Oxfam estimate that the 9513 garments are thrown into landfills every five minutes in the UK, it is quite apparent that clothing purchases are only rarely necessity buys (Gray, 2012). Of course, for the retailers themselves, increases in costs are likely to require cutbacks in other areas – perhaps including staff. I would argue, however, that the protection of the incomes of workers in the developed world cannot be upheld at the expense of millions working for just a few dollars a day, in often life threatening conditions.
It is worth noting here that independent bodies (e.g. the Ethical Trade Initiative) and other system builders lobbying for change must coalesce to carefully craft a change narrative that is compelling to those with the power to enact reform (Ganz, 2009).
- System changers
Those, like People Tree, who have the vision and the ability to guarantee the fair treatment of the workers in their supply chain in developing nations face one major challenge – scale.
Is it possible for such brands to become the Primarks and H&Ms of tomorrow? Lucy Shea, CEO of sustainable communications firm Futerra, speaking at the Source Summit for Ethical Fashion, argues that it is the inability of ethical fashion houses to convince consumers of their desirability (as Kate Moss once did for second-hand clothing), that prevents scale. She also notes that sustainable choices in abundance are required if consumers are to be satisfied by ‘ethical’ fashion offerings alone (ibid.)
However, perhaps scale of individual ethical fashion houses is not the most helpful end goal to pursue. Perhaps replication of a social innovation by multiple parties, rather than growth of one initiative into a behemoth which cannot maintain control over its supply chain, is what is required to assure the protection of worker rights. Dees, Andersen and Wei-Skillern (2004) comment that the first step for social entrepreneurs in scaling innovation is to define what the key innovation is – is it an organisational form, a specific program, or a set of principles? Successful social enterprises in the clothing retail space must define what their core capability is before determining exactly what they want to scale. For example, an organisation like People Tree may choose to found affiliate or subsidiary organisations, leveraging off the group’s capabilities but with their own autonomy and manufacturing partners. Alternatively, they may partner with other organisations to help them to replicate People Tree’s supplier partnership programs. Finally, they could disseminate the principles they uphold – but the history of ‘greenwashing’ in the fashion industry indicates that this type of initiative, unless accompanied by stringent standards that are audited, with consequences for non-compliance, lends itself to misappropriation by brands who do not truly share the values of the founding brand.
Closing thought
‘Rethinking’ value chains in clothing retail is critical if the human rights of factory workers in developing countries are to be protected. This may require revisiting both the legislative framework and concepts of what effective scale of social enterprises in this space might look like.
References: Articles and Cases
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Dees, J.G., Battle Anderson, B. and Wei-Skillern, J.(2004). Scaling Social Impact: Strategies for Spreading Social Innovations. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 1(4), pp. 24-32.
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Ferdows, K., Dominguez-Machuca, J. and Lewis, M. (2003). Zara, Case Centre Case # 603-002-1
Ganz, M. (2009) Leading Change: Leadership, Organization, and Social Movements. In Nohria, N. & Khurana, R. (eds.) Handbook of Leadership Theory and Practice: an HBS centennial colloquium on advancing leadership, Harvard Business School Press: Boston, Mass., pp. 509-550.
Gray, L. (2012). Clothes join rubbish of our throwaway society. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/9301326/Clothes-join-rubbish-of-our-throwaway-society.html [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015].
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Labowitz, S. and Baumann-Paulee, D. (2015). Business as usual is not an option. [online] stern.nyu.edu. Available at: http://www.stern.nyu.edu/sites/default/files/assets/documents/con_047408.pdf [Accessed 30 Mar. 2015].
Mair, J., & Seelos, C. (2007) ‘Profitable Business Models and Market Creation in the Context of Deep Poverty: A Strategic View’, Academy of Management Practice, 21(4):49-63.
Marks & Spencer, (2015). Key Facts. [online] Corporate.marksandspencer.com. Available at: http://corporate.marksandspencer.com/investors/key-facts [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015].
Minney, S. (2008). Fair trade is a slow process. [online] the Guardian. Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2008/jul/22/peopletree [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015].
Nisen, M. (2013). How Nike Solved Its Sweatshop Problem. [online] Business Insider. Available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-nike-solved-its-sweatshop-problem-2013-5?IR=T [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015].
Oliver, E. (2013). Source Summit: Ethical Fashion is Sexy, Now it Needs Scale. [online] Ecofashionworld.com. Available at: http://www.ecofashionworld.com/Events/Source-Summit-Ethical-Fashion-is-Sexy-Now-it-needs-Scale.html [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015].
People Tree, (2015). Saidpur Enterprises. [online] Peopletree.co.uk. Available at: http://www.peopletree.co.uk/about-us/who-makes-our-products/action-bag [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015].
People Tree, (2015). Who Makes Our Products. [online] Peopletree.co.uk. Available at: http://www.peopletree.co.uk/about-us/who-makes-our-products [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015].
Whitehead, S. (2015). 5 Truths the Fast Fashion Industry Doesn’t Want You to Know. [online] The Huffington Post. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/shannon-whitehead/5-truths-the-fast-fashion_b_5690575.html [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015].
References: Images
Retail Prophet, (2013). Rana Plaza site. [image] Available at: http://www.retailprophet.com/uncategorized/rana-plaza-120-days-later/ [Accessed 28 Mar. 2015].