Detail on workers rights 

Wages

We continue to work with factories to ensure compliance with local labour laws & payment rates. It is not within our jurisdiction to question why payment rates over & above these amounts are not made & one must also be mindful that our prices need to remain competitive. One practical way in which we have attempted to address this issue is by assisting a major supplier of ours to improve the efficiency of their labour utilisation.

Freedom of Association

We have extended our work by assisting with the establishment of a workers committee within one of our major Chinese suppliers & have had several breakthroughs in getting workers rights & grievances highlighted.

Monitoring and verification

[w]e are obliged to use nominated 3rd party auditors by certain customers & licensors who we then work with to correct non-compliant aspects. We are also working with several major high street customers who have adopted a more holistic approach...

Our conclusion

Suppliers often outline the twin constraints placed on them by their clients - to meet ethical criteria but also to keep their prices competitive - and although it is a multinational company, William Lamb is no exception.  It is encouraging that its wholly-owned factory apparently pays so much more than the minimum wage, but a rationale to compare this to workers’ needs is necessary to regard this as a living wage.  William Lamb should have more influence over wages at its own suppliers than it makes out, but if price is as much an obstacle as it suggests, its clients - many of them profiled in this report - should also create the space to allow it to raise wages.