Fairtrade textile standard to apply only to garment factories from September

Fairtrade has fundamentally revised its textile standard. The new version will come into effect on Tuesday, September 1, and will now only apply to the final stage of garment production.

Instead of covering the entire supply chain from cotton seed to finished garment, the standard will now exclusively apply to so-called Tier one factories. These are the garment factories where fabric is cut, sewn and assembled. The majority of textile production workers, predominantly women, are employed at this stage. Fairtrade has identified this stage as having the greatest social impact and is therefore concentrating its requirements here, as stated in the standard document published on March 25.

An example from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu illustrates the size of the wage gap. According to data from the Anker Research Institute, the legal minimum wage there is around 14,000 rupees, while a living wage for a female worker and her family is 19,773 rupees. The French Fairtrade organisation, Max Havelaar France, provided this information in a statement on Friday.

Base wage from day one, surcharge from brands

A new feature is a minimum wage that certified factories must pay to all employees from the day of certification. This Fairtrade base wage for textiles is set at 55 percent of the regional living wage, as calculated by the Global Living Wage Coalition, or ten percent above the legal minimum wage, whichever is higher. Only the base wage and the cost of living allowance are included; other allowances or benefits in kind are not. The requirement applies even if only part of the production is Fairtrade certified.

In addition, brands must pay a wage supplement, known as the Living Wage Differential. It is calculated via a Fairtrade calculator as a percentage of the product price that the brand pays the factory for a garment and is added to this price. The factory distributes this money in cash to all employees every six months, in proportion to the number of days worked. This means the factory is no longer solely responsible for higher wages.

At the same time, the deadline for achieving living wages is being removed. The previous standard required certified businesses to pay living wages within six years of certification and demanded a timetable agreed with the trade union. The new version no longer includes such a requirement. It is replaced by the base wage, the brand surcharge and the requirement to increase real wages annually by at least the rate of inflation and to reduce the gap in negotiated steps.

Seal to apply in future without a certified supply chain

The meaning of the seal is also changing. Previously, the Fairtrade Textile Production Mark could only be used on products whose supply chain was certified at all stages according to the textile standard, from ginning, spinning and weaving to sewing. In the future, certification of the garment factory will be sufficient. According to Max Havelaar France, companies have three options. The cotton seal represents the sourcing of the raw material; the textile seal represents production in a certified garment factory; and a combined seal indicates both. For upstream stages, minimum requirements apply through recognised social and environmental certifications. If the source of the wet processing cannot be identified and verified, the fabric cannot be used in a garment with the Fairtrade seal.

A new chapter on human rights and environmental due diligence has been added with 13 requirements. These include a risk assessment at least every three years and a grievance mechanism for employees. Smaller factories with fewer than 50 full-time employees have less extensive requirements to meet. The environmental chapter, however, is significantly shorter. The previous list of banned substances for textile production and the ban on particularly hazardous processes, such as chlorine bleaching or sandblasting, are no longer in the standard. Max Havelaar France, in contrast, describes the revision as a strengthening of environmental criteria.

Further changes relate to monitoring. The previous standard required that complaints from factories be forwarded to the certification body. These were then published by Fairtrade International in a public list with the date, type of complaint, factory and processing status. It also provided for local grievance mediators from a trade union or a human rights organisation to support employees in submitting and resolving complaints. Neither of these is included in the new standard. The requirements for working conditions also explicitly applied to subcontractors. In the future, a social certificate, such as an audit according to the Ethical Trading Initiative's base code, will be sufficient for them.

Valeria Rodriguez, head of advocacy at Max Havelaar France, said in the statement: “The transformation of the textile sector cannot succeed without the involvement of companies. With the further development of the standard, the organisation is proposing an approach in which manufacturers and brands work together towards a common goal, namely to enable employees in garment factories to live a dignified life from their work.”

This article was created with the help of AI.