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When told that it is checked that workers should get at least the minimum wage set by the government, which they all do, she said that if they think this wage is enough they should all try to live on this amount for a month and decide if it is OK.” |
| Jigsaw | | Print | |
Page 2 of 3 Detail on Workers RightsWagesJigsaw told us in its written submission that it, “accepts the principle of a living wage and is seeking to ensure that its entire supply chain accepts and applies this principle without equivocation.” In our meeting, we discussed the detail of how this might be implemented, and Jigsaw committed that within one year, it will work with LBL’s local partners to estimate a living wage in the countries of each of its six key suppliers and, if necessary, will have in place a plan to raise wages to this level. Freedom of AssociationJigsaw’s written submission tells us that it, “accepts the principles of freedom of association and collective bargaining and is seeking to ensure that its entire supply chain accepts and applies these same principles.” It told us that workers at its factory in Wales have received training from the GMB union but chose not to organise, and that one factory in the Czech republic has a trade union and a collective bargaining agreement. At our meeting Jigsaw committed that within one year, it will, “endeavour to ensure that workers in its six core factories have received training in their trade union rights from local trade unions or labour rights groups.” Monitoring and verificationJigsaw does not at present have any systems in place for monitoring working conditions in its suppliers, having operated in an ‘innocent until proven guilty’ framework. At our meeting, it was open to our argument that poor working conditions are endemic, and that effective monitoring would be likely to pick up labour rights violations even at high quality manufacturers. As a result, Jigsaw told us that it, “accepts that monitoring and verification are important parts of the process of applying the above principles and is considering how best to put in place appropriate systems.” Specifically, within one year, its Asian subsidiary Bonfine will have, “appointed a local person with responsibility (and independence) for local labour rights.” Our conclusionIn 2006, we stated that, “Jigsaw’s letter is full of good intentions, and we suspect that if it had specifically addressed the points we raised in our inquiries, it might have scored better.” It appears we were right. Jigsaw surveyed its supplier base in order to present us with some initial findings, listened to our arguments, and made commitments to move forward within the next year. Part of Jigsaw’s difficulty up to now is also its major opportunity: by not participating in a multi-stakeholder initiative, it has missed out on a great deal of accumulated knowledge from ten years’ work on labour rights; by joining one now, it can leap-frog that ten years of learning to start at the cutting edge. Jigsaw committed within one year to approach the ETI and/or Fair Wear Foundation about membership. If it delivers on all these commitments, as it appears committed to doing, Jigsaw will be a long way towards ensuring a clean supply base, in its core factories at least. |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 September 2007 ) | |||||
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