People

Everyone should receive a wage that covers his or her basic needs, yet the wages earned by the people who make your clothes are often not liveable. Despite decades of talk about living wages, workers have seen little action. We need a new normal. We need to change the industry.

Continental Clothing Co. is proud to have been working with the Fair Wear Foundation since 2006, and has achieved 'Leader' Status. This category is for member companies who are doing exceptionally well, and are operating at an advanced level. Leaders show best practices in complex areas such as living wages and freedom of association.

In July 2016 at the Ethical Fashion Show in Berlin, we, Continental Clothing Co. launched The Fair Share™ collection. It is an extension of the EarthPositive® range, produced within the same supply chain but using Fairtrade organic cotton. The branding of Fair Share™ products is designed to communicate and draw attention to the payment of a Living Wage. Adding as little as 10p to the price of a T-shirt results in a 50% increase in the wages of the poorest workers at our factory in India.

The Fair Wear Foundation looks to ‘beacons’— cases where they work with leading Fair Wear members to raise wages — as the starting point for industry change, Fair Share™ is one such beacon. Based on these experiences, it is then possible to develop tools and guidance to help other clothing brands improve. We then share these tools and insights beyond Fair Wear to create widespread wage improvements for the people who make our clothes.

This is how we inspire change, this is how we demonstrate Leadership, this is how we make a difference.

A Sweatshop is an umbrella term for a factory or workshop, especially in the clothing industry, where manual workers are employed at very low wages for long hours and under poor conditions, with no basic rights such as sick pay or maternity pay. Sometimes it's a factory that generally performs well, but might fail on particular issues, and then there are extreme examples of factories that may use forced or bonded labour, or child labour, which unfortunately do still exist. It is a fact that children as young as 10 years old can still be found working in factories 7 days a week. And then there is everything on the spectrum in between. Garment making factories that perform perfectly are few and far between.

Sweatshop free is also an umbrella term for a factory that treats their employees ethically and fairly, but standards vary wildly, and especially from country to country, and the term is too generalized with no agreed standards and no accountability to be useful. What is required is the application of a universal workers labour standard, that applies irrespective of country or region or industry, and this is what the Fair Wear Foundation promotes, based upon the Code of Labour Practices (CoLP), eight labour standards derived from ILO Conventions and the UN’s Declaration on Human Rights.

A key component of authenticity and accountability is transparency, and so in 2021 we launched a new inside garment label with a QR code linking to a microsite ‘Made Fair’ which takes the consumer on a journey through the supply chain, meeting the workers who produced the garment through all the stages, showing where our clothes are made, who they are made by, and what processes are involved in manufacturing environmentally sustainable organic cotton clothing.

'Over 75 million workers are employed globally in the fashion industry, and approximately 85% are women.'

About three-quarters of garment workers around the world are women, and women are disproportionately affected by violence and discrimination in the workplace. That’s why when we speak about gender-based issues in the garment industry, we are speaking mainly about issues affecting women and girls. At the same time, it’s vital to note that men are also victims of gender-based discrimination and harassment in the workplace, especially gender non-conforming men, including those who either are or are perceived to be gay, bisexual or transgender.

Typical female garment workers in India for example, often face harassment from men as a regular part of her day. They deal with inadequate hygeine facilities, may be forced by either management or family needs to work overtime for weeks on end, have limited to no opportunity for promotion within the company, and are paid less than their male counterparts.

This is why pushing for gender equity in factories and across the supply chain is critical. Economic parity is a powerful statement, it raises status, and once achieved, everything else tends to fall into line. It is an important milestone on the journey to respect and equality.

Economic justice demands that regardless of gender, everyone deserves equal pay for the same work, equal opportunities, and a safe and respectful working environment. Social justice encompasses economic justice. This begins with independently verifying and documenting Labour Standards, in collaboration with the Fair Wear Foundation, since 2006. The changes made, and improvements seen, apply to all workers at each factory, not just those working on our own brands, and the ripple effect within small close-knit communities working in textile manufacturing is widely acknowledged.

This is how we accelerate change, and ensure compliance, and make a difference in workers lives.