Thank you for attending the webinar "Due diligence in the garment sector – Public procurement as the missing multiplier for decent work?" on February 19 (watch the recording). Here is a summary of the key points discussed. Thanks again to our excellent panellists and moderator!
Decent work can be fostered in public value chains by shared responsibility, increased trust and transparency
The main challenge discussed in the webinar was - the persistent lack of - decent work for garment workers. Key recommendations on how public procurement could foster better conditions brought up across the panel were:
1. Due diligence requirements and shared responsibility
Public buyers should include due diligence requirements in their contracts to protect human rights. One good example of such practice is the new contract clauses from the Swedish Regions National Secretariat for Sustain able Public Procurement. They include language on living wages, meaningful dialogue with stakeholders and the right to remedy. But public authorities also need to help suppliers live up to the contract clauses, by providing guidance and support to suppliers. There needs to be a shared responsibility from all value chain actors.
2. Improve dialogues and create trust
Mistrust and lack of dialogue between workers, factories, and brands hurt everyone.In the case of the Bangladesh garment industry, there are problems of mistrust between the actors in the value chain. For example, the constant price squeezing from brands, means factories keep undercutting each other and by doing so put garment workers in vulnerable positions. To avoid mistrust, improved dialogue is needed not only between brands and factories and workers, but also between brands. Other measures buyers can take is the support of trade unions and collective bargaining.
3. Increase transparency and traceability
Public buyers should leverage existing information sharing what isalready shared among other actors, but might not reach contracting authorities. This was clearly illustrated by the Bangladesh garment industry where factories are already sharing information regarding employees' salaries with their buyers. In addition, traceability is key for monitoring. Monitoring and control systems need to be developed in dialogue with workers, to make sure they measure improvement, and to avoid causing unintended harm for workers and factories.Here, publicbuyers, can rely more on existing research and best practices.
Lastly, we want to highlight what the Member of the European Parliament Nikolaj Villumsen stated in his introduction to the webinar: "Public procurement should be a tool for a better and more just societies, not the opposite."According to Villiemsen, there might be a "window of opportunity" for a revision of theEU Public Procurement Directive SPAN>, to improve the legislation to be better fit for purpose. With the EU election coming in June, Villumsen called for support to make public procurement a priority point on the new EU Parliament and Commission'sagenda.
Learn more about due diligence in the garnment sector in this article on our website.
We hope this was helpful. Don't SPAN> hesitate to contact us if you have any questions or with ideas for topics we should look into!
Sofia Käll
Programme Officer at Swedwatch
Götgatan 100, 118 62 Stockholm
+46 (0)73 223 02 85
WhatsApp: +46 (0)70 290 97 35
www.swedwatch.org
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