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This report isn't an 'ethical shopping guide'. The way to help workers is not to boycott one company in favour of another, it's to shift from being a passive consumer to an active one. Each time you buy clothes, get in touch with the company you bought them from, ask them what they are doing about the recommendations in this report. Together, we can - and we will - clean up fashion.

TK Maxx

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Detail on Workers Rights

Wages

TJX's code states that its suppliers,

"must abide with all applicable laws relating to wages and benefits, and must pay the legally prescribed minimum wage or the prevailing industry wage, whichever is higher."

Its website makes no reference to a living wage.

Freedom of association

TJX's code states that,

"Our vendors must respect the rights of their workers to choose (or choose not) to freely associate and to bargain collectively where such rights are recognized by law."

As TJX's website indicates that a lot of its private label brands are sourced from China, it is disappointing to note that its code implies that workers there will have no freedom of association, since trade union rights are not recognised by law. TJX does state that it has conducted supplier training, which is also limited to local labour laws.

Monitoring and verification

Over 90% of products sold by TJX are produced by other brands, with their own codes of conduct and compliance procedures. Nevertheless, TJX states that,

"our name brand vendors warrant that their goods have been manufactured and shipped in accordance with...among other things, human rights and labor rights standards."

For its private label lines, TJX has an auditing system in place:

"On-site audits conducted by our independent monitors and principal buying agents generally include one to two full working days at each audited factory, and include the following components: Interview with factory management [...]; Payroll and documentation review; Health and safety inspection; Confidential worker interviews; Debrief with factory management [...]."

It is not clear whether these audits are announced, nor the frequency with which they take place.

Our conclusion: We were disappointed that TJX only referred us to its website, since the website does not answer many of our points. It seems that, while TJX has developed a training and auditing programme, it still needs to move above the legal minima on both wages and freedom of association.

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Last Updated ( Thursday, 13 September 2007 )

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