Towards 2017 Better Work Phase III Strategy

Promoting Good Working

Conditions Across the

International Garment Industry

Towards 2017

Better Work Phase III Strategy

Sixty million workers across the developing world rely on the garment industry

for their livelihoods. Of these, eighty percent are female, many of whom have

migrated from rural areas and are entering the formal workforce for the fi rst time.

While factories are a valuable source of jobs and can help improve livelihoods of

workers and their families, poor working conditions remain a pressing issue across

the global garment industry. While there have been many advances over the

past 25 years, many problems remain and momentous industry progress remains

elusive for a variety of reasons including the following:

• Garment industries tend to represent the fi rst step on the formal employment

ladder in developing countries. As such, workers often do not have a good

understanding of their rights under the law nor the skills to eff ectively

communicate or negotiate with their employers. At the same time, employers

themselves often have limited training or experience in eff ective industrial

relations.

• While labour laws in many garment producing countries can be quite strong,

the instruments of law enforcement are often inadequate. These industries

typically lack mature systems of industrial relations and the bargaining power

of workers is often weak.

• International buyers have to set up parallel monitoring systems to fi ll these

gaps, resulting in a failure to focus on building the long-term capacity of

government, employers, or trade unions and also leading to fragmentation

and duplication of eff orts.

• Auditing for factory compliance alone has been widely acknowledged to be

limited in rectifying many issues. Factories who wish to cheat the auditing

system are managing to do so without focusing on the long-term business

benefi ts of improving their working conditions.

• Garment supply chains are complex and varied, often with many

intermediaries between the factory and fi nal retailer. This leads to a lack of

accountability and ownership for improving compliance and weakens direct

oversight and traceability of products.

There is a huge development and business opportunity to grasp by investing in

good jobs and by providing workers, especially women, with the support they

need to realize their rights and their full potential in the workplace. Ultimately,

factory work cannot lead to sustainable change unless the disadvantages workers

often face are tackled head on. Paid work can and should create opportunities for

workers to realize their rights, express their voice and develop their skills.

Problem Analysis

The Better Work Vision

Better Work also aims to infl uence the policies and practices of international

buyers, governments and other institutions by sharing the unique knowledge

and fi ndings arising from its core programme. We will be the partnership of

choice for our constituents, international buyers and institutional partners.

Through this wider alliance, Better Work will leverage opportunities to improve

industrial relations and labour law governance as well as create a level playing

fi eld for good employment practices.

A partnership between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the

International Finance Corporation (IFC), Better Work is a global programme

which brings expertise in labour together with expertise in business

investment to provide long-term answers to the gaps and limitations in the

international garment industry’s labour standards. Better Work currently

operates in Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Lesotho, Nicaragua, Jordan, and

Haiti and Bangladesh.

Our vision is that by 2017, Better Work will have improved the lives of at least

three million workers and millions more of their family members. We will

achieve this by driving sector-wide sustainable improvement in adherence

to national labour law and core labour standards and

strengthening business competitiveness in major

garment producing countries.

Towards 2017 Better Work Phase III Strategy

Some Achievements at a Glance

• improvement in occupational safety and health in Haiti, Jordan and Vietnam

• Forced labour issues in Jordan improved by

• compliance in paying correct minimum wages, paid leave, and social security

benefi ts in Jordan among factories participating for more than 2 years

• of factories now have workers’ contracts in line with the law in Haiti

• Elimination of formalized HIV/AIDS discrimination in factories in Lesotho

• of Better Work Vietnam factories have seen a rise in total sales, 62% have

increased production capacity, and 60% have expanded employment.

• In Haiti, improvements in working conditions facilitated by Better Work have coincided

with an increase of over in the value of apparel exports to the US.

Better Work has helped to make labour law compliance a reality for more than one

million workers

• Abuse of fundamental rights has been stopped. For example, in Jordan concerns about

workers rights to freely leave their place of work have improved. The vast majority of

workers ( ) now retain their own travel documents

• In an industry where employment is often precarious, of factories now have

workers’ contracts in line with the law (benchmark). In Vietnam there has been a

increase in workers issued with formal contracts.

• We know that these improvements in compliance to laws bring tangible benefi ts to

workers. For example, we know that in Vietnam a improvement in compliance to

labour laws translates into a improvement in incomes for workers.

More than 900 factories across four continents employing

close to 1000,000 workers are involved in Better Work

And Better Work is better business too

For example, in Vietnam, factories in which workers trust that they are paid correctly and report low verbal

abuse are almost 8% more profi table than those factories in which workers do not report these conditions.

In Cambodia, factories in compliance with fundamental rights are 56% more likely to retain their customers,

and higher compliant factories are more likely to attract high-quality buyers. So, improvements in job quality

need not cost business. 65% of Better Work Vietnam factories have seen a rise in total sales, 62% have increased

production capacity, and 60% have expanded employment. In Haiti, improvements in working conditions

facilitated by Better Work have coincided with an increase of over 40% in the value of apparel exports to the US.

Beyond Individual Factories

Better Work’s impact stretches beyond individual factories to national-level labour policy issues. The

programme harnesses the ILO’s unique position as the United Nations’ only tripartite organization that includes

government, employer and trade union members. This convener role helps to put systems in place that

address the concerns and interests of the various constituents. For example, Better Work Haiti helped develop

a roundtable for social dialogue to ensure productive relations between employers and workers, in Vietnam,

Better Work contributed to a historic revision of the labour law calling for the fi rst time for worker/management

committees in enterprises aff ecting 8-10 millions workers and in Jordan a workers’ centre has been set up to

provide leisure and supports such as skills training, legal advice, and mental health counseling to workers.

Better Work’s far-reaching research are being used to infl uence decision makers. Research thus far, has shown

compelling results.

Since Better Work’s establishment, compliance with labour laws and international

standards has steadily improved across all programme countries

Towards 2017 Better Work Phase III Strategy

Phase III Strategy

Better Work created a multi-pronged strategy to guide activities from July

2012 to June 2015 with broader objectives to carry the program to 2017. The

strategy for Phase III aims to harness the programme’s experience and vast

amount of data. To this end, Better Work’s ultimate vision for Phase III is for the

programme to reach a level of infl uencing, knowledge sharing and partnership

that will contribute to lasting changes in the garment industry and beyond,

where upholding good working conditions becomes an ethos and an ingrained

practice for all stakeholders.

Phase I (2007-2009)

Better Work was established on the global level and

programmes were set up in Haiti, Jordan, and Vietnam.

These built upon the pre-existing Better Factories Cambodia

programme which was the original inspiration for Better Work.

The fi rst phase involved assembling teams, establishing global

structures and quality assurance systems, and putting in place

mechanisms and tools to capture workplace conditions in

Better Work countries.

Phase II (2009-2012)

Better Work scaled up engagement by opening programmes

in Indonesia, Lesotho and Nicaragua while setting the stage for

activities in Bangladesh. Operations in this phase reached seven

countries and engaged more than 60 global garment brands

and 600 workplaces employing more than 700,000 workers.

Phase III (2012 to date)

In order to carry the programme into its third phase, Better

Work underwent an independent evaluation which made a

series of key recommendations.. Important suggestions were

that Better Work should advance and restructure its services

and expand relations with buyers and should put in place

systems for transferring Better Work’s portfolio over to local

organizations in its country programs where that is possible.

These ideas have been incorporated into the Phase III strategy.

Towards 2017

Better Work’s Phase III strategy entails the following elements:

• Opening New Programmes: The Better Work Bangladesh project is beginning operations and the

programme is exploring progression into other large industries.

• Scaling: In existing country programmes, primarily those with large industries, Better Work’s services

(assessment, training and advisory) are making adaptations to their model so that they can maximize

the numbers of factories and workers they reach.

• Entering New Areas of Work: Expansion includes the footwear sector in all Better Work countries

that have a sizable industry . Additionally, the IFC is leading investigations into whether a Better Work

expansion into environmental services is feasible in countries including Indonesia.

Expanding

Towards 2017 Better Work Phase III Strategy

• Assuring Quality: A quality assurance system has been designed and is used to ensure Better Work services

are reliable, high quality and consistent across all countries.

• Evaluating Impact: The inputs of workers and managers are being gathered on an ongoing basis to assess

the impact of improved compliance on workers and businesses. Better Work is using these fi ndings to drive

policy change and build evidence that good working conditions are good for both workers and business.

• Increasing Focus on Core Labour Issues. In order to ensure the programme advances workers’ rights in

a meaningful and targeted way, Better Work is intensifying eff orts to address core labour issues, including

discrimination, child and forced labor, and freedom of association and collective bargaining. For example, the

programme has stepped up eff orts to address industrial relations across its factories and based on worker

inputs, has developed specialized materials on issues such as sexual harassment.

• Infl uencing National Policy: Better Work is fi nding ways to stimulate improvements in national-level policies

and systems by harnessing the programme’s experiences and data. Successful examples include Vietnam’s new

labour law which includes a new regulation that requires worker-management committees, largely modeled

after the Performance Improvement Consultative Committees (PICCs) set up by Better Work. The government

is also discussing introduction of a direct worker election system to these committees, again, building off

the Better Work model. Additionally, in Jordan, following training by Better Work and the ILO, employers’

associations and the trade union signed a Collective Bargaining Agreement covering the full garment sector,

aff ecting approximately 40,000 workers.

• Creating The Business Case: Better Work is gathering data and research to make a compelling business case

for enterprises to invest in improving working conditions. For example, the program continues its partnership

with Tufts University to collect information from thousands of workers across fi ve Better Work countries. This

information is being fused with factory compliance data to measure trends between better compliance

and outcomes for business and the impact of improved compliance on workers’ lives within and beyond

the workplace. This analysis is determining which facets of working conditions matter the most to workers’

everyday lives.

• Informing Global Policy: Better Work has identifi ed areas of global public policy that could benefi t from

data and experience from the programme. The ILO, the IFC and the World Bank Group are using Better Work’s

fi ndings to inform broad policy development, amplifying the profi le of Better Work’s fi ndings. For example, the

World Bank featured Better Work data in its 2012 World Development Report on Jobs to demonstrate that jobs

with higher compliance in labour standards do more for development.

• Communicating Strategically: Communication plays an essential role in ensuring the success of Better

Work’s infl uencing strategy. As such, the programme is accelerating its use of media platforms to communicate

fi ndings and share key materials with specifi c target groups.

Engineering changes in practices and policies

Accelerating and Showcasing Impact

• Increasing Eff ectiveness of Relations: Better Work currently collaborates

with 60 international clothing buyers including many of the most iconic labels.

The programme has set up a buyer partnership model to make relations with

buyers more accountable, transparent and focused on results. . To date, a total of

23 buyers have joined as partners. The program has developed strong working

relations with these buyers and off ers them opportunities to provide input to

the Better Work programme, as well as to interact with national stakeholders

(government, employers and unions) to help ensure that progress is supported

and increasingly owned at the national level.

• Reaching New Buyers: In addition to ongoing work to deepen the

commitment of the buyers already engaged with the programme, the program

is also working to reach out to more buyers and encourage them to join the

programme. The more buyers that are engaged, the greater the number of

factories involved, and the more workers who are impacted. Increasing the

number of buyers also helps to increase alignment between them on basic

expectations for working conditions, allowing Better Work to have a greater

impact on the industry level in the countries where the program operates.

Specifi cally, Better Work is trying to secure the participation of more buyers from

the European and emerging consumer markets while also looking at groups of

factories and vendor groups based in Asia.

Infl uencing Buyers

Towards 2017 Better Work Phase III Strategy

• Boosting Viability. Larger country programmes are focused on strategies to recover their funding through

charging fees to factories and buyers for the services. At the same time, programs are also securing donor

funding where appropriate. Where feasible, sustainability will involve transferring the delivery of Better Work’s

core services (assessing, training and advisory) to independent, local organizations. Planning is underway so

that this can be achieved while maintaining quality and consistency.

• Creating National Ownership: In order for the country programmes to have strong and appropriate

ownership and continue to be viable, national stakeholders including government, employers and trade

unions are being given an increasingly large role in the delivery, and ultimately the governance of the Better

Work Programmes. This is being established through the Project Advisory Committees (PACs) which are

made up of representatives from government, employers and trade unions to advise programmes as well

as through active partnership with local representatives. Examples include training co-sponsored by Better

Work and national employer organizations and/or trade unions and partnership with local Ministries of Labor

on aspects of assessments and/or advisory services.

Strengthening Governance and Viability

Better Work’s Phase III builds on the progress made by the program to date. The program will expand its

impact at the factory fl oor by working in more enterprises and strengthening the quality and depth of our

services. At the same time, Better Work will focus on using lessons and data from its factory work to have

greater infl uence across the garment industry. Equipped with the strategic elements outlined above, Better

Work’s long-term aim is to carry working conditions into the 21st century, shedding the ‘sweatshop’ image and

ensuring that factories are safe, respectful and decent places to work.

For more information please visit www.betterwork.org

Better Work, International Labour Offi ce, 4, route des Morillons, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland

4, route des Morillons, CH-1211 Geneva 22, Switzerland

www.betterwork.org