Aurora fashions

(Coast, Karen Millen, Oasis, Odille, Warehouse, Anoushka G)

Aurora Fashions became the parent company of Oasis, Warehouse, Karen Millen, Coast, Odille and Anoushka G following the administration of Mosaic Fashions in March 2009. Ethical policies and functions were retained.

Download Aurora Fashion's Submission Here (PDF)

Responded to survey: yes

MSI involvement: no [what's this?]

Grade 2.5: Can offer concrete examples of steps to increase wages in the supplier base, but pilot projects are limited in scope and have significant omissions [what's this?]

Summary

An improvement on last year, although by a different parent company; Aurora are making an effort to match living wage levels to NGO research and implement freedom of association projects in China

Position on living wages

‘Policy is unchanged from last year. We support the right of all workers to receive a living wage...’

Position on freedom of association

Code of conduct states ‘Freedom of Association and the right to collective bargaining are respected.’ Also, ‘As part of our Ethical Trading conference [in Turkey and Hong Kong] we addressed this topic [Freedom of Association] with suppliers, explaining that workers have a right to join a trade union if they so wish and that management must not discourage workers from exercising this right.’

Aurora’s work on this in China also included ‘encouraging the formation of worker elected committees to provide a forum for workers to express their views and engage in dialogue with management.’ It further stated that it would be premature to describe this as a form of freedom of association but were returning to the factories shortly to continue work on this ‘complex area’.

Work so far on living wages

Aurora’s main piece of work seems to be ensuring audits measure wages against recent estimates in ethical reports:

‘In China – our largest sourcing country – the estimated living wage [according to Traidcraft and Impactt report ‘Material Concerns] is RMB 855.64. According to this figure the minimum wage across China is close to a living wage, with some regions nearer than others... The minimum wage in Hangzhou – one of our biggest and growing sourcing
regions – was estimated to be 99% of a living wage when the report was published. Since then, the minimum wage has been increased to RMB 960, taking it above this figure.’

It is unclear how Aurora intends to address wages in areas where the gap between minimum and living wages are significant

Plans on living wages

Aurora mentioned that there is ‘now a plan to establish a living wage project in Turkey’ but gave no indication as to what such a project would involve.

Our comments

The wage figures that Aurora have used to calculate living wages in China were taken by Traidcraft researchers from LBL’s Clean up Fashion report in 2007. Since then living wage levels have increased dramatically. The Asian Floor Wage figure for China is now RMB 1638.75 so it will be important for Aurora to move beyond minimum wage targets if it is too ensure living wages for all workers. It is good to note however that Aurora see the importance of using real figures, preferably negotiated, to match wage levels and we hope that they continue to take a similar approach in the future.

It is encouraging to see that Aurora are taking freedom of association seriously too, although its surprising that China (where it is prohibited) has been chosen for this piece of work. We look forward to seeing this work extended to other supplier countries where associational rights are protected to a greater extent by law.

The glaring omission from Aurora’s submission is any attempt to work collaboratively. It will be difficult for Aurora to develop genuinely effective projects if it continues to work alone. Joining a multi stakeholder initiative would give it the chance to thrash out wage issues, learn from the work of others and add more depth to its plans.