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Workers still find themselves struggling to survive on the breadline, working excessive overtime just so they can make ends meet. |
| Levi Strauss | | Print | |
Page 2 of 3 Detail on Workers RightsWagesThis has been a tumultuous year for Levi’s, because of its policy on living wages, stated last year:[W]e do not feel that we have all the information we need to be able to responsibly implement and enforce a living wage requirement in our Code of Conduct. As a matter of policy, we will not add provisions to our T[erms] O[f] E[ngagement] that we can not adequately enforce.In January, Levi’s was suspended from the ETI because it refused to support the living wage provision of the ETI’s base code. This soon led to a full withdrawal from ETI by the company. Its response to us this year sets its policy in even starker terms: Markets set wage rates. Where wages fail to keep workers above the poverty line, governments should set minimum wages consistent with the cost of living.This is a step backwards: last year, Levi’s suggested that it had some plans to experiment with implementing the living wage, but this year its position is to reject its own responsibility for the wages its workers earn. Freedom of AssociationLevi’s told us that,We view freedom of association as a fundamental right of all workers, and consider violations of the freedom of association provisions of our TOE as “zero-tolerance violations.”It gave examples of how it has worked with local stakeholders in instances where this right is violated. In addition, Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations provided training to our TOE managers. Based on that training, LS&CO. developed locally-tailored freedom of association training and educational presentations for internal management, TOE assessors, external monitors and suppliers around the world on our strengthened guidance and our expectations of suppliers in this area.Levi’s does not appear to have a systematic approach to facilitating worker education. It funds workers’ rights organisations through the Levi Strauss Foundation (LSF), and sometimes “opens doors” for them to educate workers in factories supplying Levi’s. For example, one project, has educated more than 250,000 migrant women workers in China on their workplace rights, financial literacy and basic health care. With LSF funding, the Asia Foundation also launched the first legal aid organization focused solely on migrant workers in the Pearl River Delta, where most of the manufacturing in China occurs.We asked what proportion of workers manufacturing for Levi’s at any one time had been educated through LSF-funded projects, but this information was not available. Monitoring and verificationLast year, Levi’s told us that,Each facility is formally assessed once a year. The formal assessment consists of: interviews with the facility management; a review of personnel, wage and working hour records; and a physical walk-through and inspection of health and safety conditions in the factory and dormitories if they exist. A critical part of each TOE assessment is the process of gathering information from workers, a random, confidential worker interview process developed by Verite and LS&CO. staff and to provide important, uncoloured information for the assessors and ensure protection for the participating workers. This year, it added that, “Discussions with workers are conducted in the workers’ language and are carried out both on factory premises and off site.” As we said last year, this sits Levi at the ‘best practice’ end of the failing commercial auditing spectrum, but it still does not move past this into collaboration with local stakeholders. Levi’s also publishes a full list of all 700 its supplier factories, a positive step for encouraging transparency. Our conclusionIt’s impossible not to be disappointed with Levi Strauss & Co. It won’t sign up to the living wage because it cannot be implemented, yet by withdrawing from the ETI it removes its participation from one of the few forums in which it might be able to work with other companies to overcome this very hurdle. At least it is being more honest than those companies who sign up to ETI and then ignore the living wage clause in its base code, aspirational or not. Either way, Levi’s could get round the implementation problems by taking a systematic approach to facilitating access to freedom of association: this way workers could negotiate a living wage through collective bargaining. Levi’s has been a leader in ethical trading, and in other areas it has more to show than many of its peers, but its attitude to the living wage has dragged it behind the times. |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 September 2007 ) | |||||
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