The HWCP, and its 'No Sweat Shop' label, is a joint Union-Industry Initiative aimed at reducing the high levels of exploitation in the clothing and fashion industy.
In Australia some people in the fashion and clothing industry work in modern factories for legal pay. More often however, they work in a cramped sweatshop or in a room or garage at home for substandard wages.
People who work at home, away from the employer’s premises, are known as outworkers or homeworkers. Being isolated and with very little bargaining power, homeworkers are in an extremely vulnerable position. The vast majority of homeworkers are women from non-English speaking backgrounds. The low piece rates that homeworkers are usually paid, translate to very low hourly wage rates, which fall well below legal industry standards. Homeworkers in Australia typically work 12 hour days, six or seven days a week, for about one third of the legal (Federal Clothing Trades Award 1999) rate of pay.
It is not uncommon to find homeworkers receiving $3 an hour and sometimes less. Due to poor working conditions and inferior machinery, homeworkers are three times as likely to have work related injuries, both acute and chronic, than their counterparts who work in factories. Homeworkers face irregular work and an insecure income and very rarely receive industrial entitlements such as paid annual leave, superannuation, or sick leave.
In an attempt to help address these issues, the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia has partner with various industry groups and companies to create the Homeworkers Code of Practice and the No Sweat Shop label. The basic principle behind the Homeworkers Code of Practice is, if manufacturers can make their production chains transparent, then exploitation can be easily identified and addressed.
The Code encourages manufacturers to take an ethical approach and be responsible for staying informed of all the steps involved in the production of their garments. The ‘Accreditation’ process that manufacturers undergo to become eligible to use the No Sweat Shop label on their Australian made garments, is effectively the process of ‘mapping’ the company’s supply chain and verifying that workers are receiving their legal entitlements.
The production chains of Accredited manufacturers continue to be reviewed and documented by the HWCP Project and Administration Officers and verified by the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia. When consumers see the No Sweat Shop label, they can be confident that the garment was produced in Australia and everyone involved in its production received at least the minimum legal standards.
For more information, please visit: www.nosweatshoplabel.com
