Is your garment supply chain free from modern slavery?

  • Written by Peter Needle
  • Published on 24 August 2015
  • Blogs

The Modern Slavery Act will make supply chain transparency, reporting and improvement a compulsory measure for many large UK companies. However, industry expert David Birnbaum recently told Just Style that compliance in the global garment industry is still “fundamentally flawed.” So how can you tell if your supply chain is slavery free, and what can you do about it?

Changing consumer priorities

Under the Modern Slavery Act, UK businesses with a certain turnover will need to publish an annual slavery and human trafficking statement, reporting on actions taken to ensure their supply chain is free from slavery. Businesses will need to describe the steps they have taken to ensure that slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in their supply chains or any part of their business.

The act reflects a broader consumer preference towards supply chain transparency. Shoppers are becoming increasingly conscious of the working conditions that products are made in, and many would prefer to buy clothing from ethical sources.

Jumping on the compliance bandwagon

The garment industry must evolve to meet new consumer needs, but not everything is changing.

“Customers, factories and governments in garment exporting countries jump on the compliance bandwagon, regardless of whether they are serious about it or not,” Birnbaum argues. “Workers still have the same 16 hour days, one day off a month, there is still child labour, and nobody is ringing improvements.”

Ethical standards can be breached at any point in the supply chain, but subcontracting represents the biggest problem that many garment retailers and manufacturers face. Companies are often unaware of subcontracting activities and supplier relationships beyond the first or second tier of the supply chain, and this lack of visibility leaves them vulnerable to compliance problems.

“They’re inspecting 1,500 factories in an industry that has 5,000 factories,” explains Birnbaum. Without complete visibility over their supply chain, addressing modern slavery could be impossible for large UK companies, as they struggle to see where goods are really coming from.

Supply chain compliance “not for everybody”

While garment supply chain issues are more common and often more serious in developing countries such as Bangladesh, location alone does not dictate compliance standards.

“It isn’t about the country. It’s not about the government. It’s not even about the industry,” argues Birnbaum. “Compliance is about the factory and it has to be done one factory at a time.”

“We have to accept that compliance will not be for everybody… There are customers and factories who will always try to cut corners and an attempt to bring everyone into the system will make the system corrupt.”

It’s therefore important that UK retailers take a close look at their supply chain, and remove any suppliers that could pose a threat to their ethical reputation.

Managing supply chain visibility

Segura’s software makes it easy for garment retailers to trace orders of trims and packaging through their secondary supply chain. Comprehensive audit trails are created which monitor all sourcing activities, and retailers are alerted if orders are fulfilled outside of a pre-approved supplier base.

We’ve also partnered with AsiaInspection to bring together two advanced supply chain technologies. AsiaInspection factory audits can now be requested directly through the Segura platform, making it incredibly simple for retailers to build a personalised database of compliant suppliers.

Rather than jumping on the compliance bandwagon, retailers can effectively analyse their supply chain one factory at a time, and make sure that modern slavery isn’t present.

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