Communication is key

The projects mentioned above have their origin in our risk analysis. In it, we were able to identify living wages, discrimination, occupational health and safety, freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining as the most serious and minimum wage, water consumption and pollution, forced labor, child labor, overtime, hazardous chemicals, minimum wage, greenhouse gas emissions, corruption as relevant but lower risks.

Through our support of Goldstandard, Caritas, and Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, as well as audit and equipment support, we make a targeted contribution to improving these risks, which particularly benefits vulnerable groups in our main procurement countries.

We assess the risk of occupational health and safety more precisely in our subjective supplier surveys and documentation as well as externally conducted more objective BSCI audits and have found that in some companies the topic has already been well dealt with and in others, especially in the information area, there is still potential to inform employees about their rights such as vacation and sick days, insurance, etc. We support our quite independent companies from the background with a monitoring function and the range of materials.

Due to our size, the memberships of amfori and the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles are crucial to take more targeted measures. By attending numerous training courses and seminars, we develop new competencies in order to live up to our responsibility as a trading company in the textile sector.

Further projects specifically to promote living wages are being planned.