FWF’s Koen Oosterom just returned from a mission to Myanmar. Together with FWF country representative San Latt Phyu he visited local FWF stakeholders to exchange knowledge on the local garment sector.

San Latt and Koen met with several FWF stakeholders. They visited suppliers to FWF brands, local NGOs, a business association and trade union, the ILO and the Dutch embassy.

Living wages
At the Ministry of Labour in Nay Pyi Taw FWF introduced its work by showing the Burmese version of the FWF Formula and a recently published video on Living Wages in Myanmar. The Permanent Secretary and his team expressed high interest in FWF’s work.

Myanmar is becoming increasingly important as a garment production country.  At present, there are approximately 350 garment factories. They face high risks for violations to labour rights including low wages, long working hours, repression of union members and child labour.

FWF has seen a slow but steady increase in the number of factories in Myanmar that FWF members source from. Currently 13 FWF members are sourcing from the country.

The Romanian version of the Fair Wear Formula video is released.

The short film highlights the main issues facing garment workers, why finding solutions is so complicated, and what brands and consumers can do to help make improvements.

The video will help introduce FWF to stakeholders and factory managers as well as workers in Romania. It will be used in trainings for workers, managers and supervisors.

The textile and garment industry is one of the most important sectors of Romanian industry and one of the main employers in Romania, with women being the majority of workers. FWF has been carrying out factory audits in the country since 2006.

The Fair Wear Formula is available in over ten languages. You can watch all films on FWF’s YouTube channel.

Fair Wear Foundation and ILO Better Work will enter a collaboration to offer the garment companies they work with new benefits and to ultimately enhance their ability to improve labour conditions. The collaboration will officially begin with an 18 month pilot on 1 June 2017.

FWF and Better Work—a flagship programme of the UN’s International Labour Organisation—will join forces to fulfil three primary objectives: 1. coordinating factory assessments to reduce the duplication of audits, 2. streamlining improvement processes so more brands can collaborate on remediation and 3. making a wider range of training opportunities available to tackle priority workplace issues such as sexual harassment, health and safety.

Same objectives
‘Together we are capable of better facilitating cooperation between garment brands on improved working conditions’, says FWF Associate Director Margreet Vrieling. ‘Collaborating with Better Work provides a great opportunity to learn from one other. After all, we have the same objectives, just different approaches.’

The collaboration will also enable both parties to expand their work in strategic new areas. Engaging new European brands and smaller garment companies will bring benefits for Better Work, while Fair Wear Foundation will gain access to data gathered as part of Better Work’s research agenda, for example.

Vietnam & Bangladesh
Chief of Better Work Dan Rees came to the Hague on 18 May to sign the agreement. ‘In an industry with more than 60 million workers and much still to be done to improve adherence to international and national labour standards, we welcome this partnership as a step towards creating decent work for all’ he said during the Human Rights and Garment conference.

The first trial project will start in Vietnam and Bangladesh in factories from which FWF members and Better Work business partners source.

FWF welcomes the German fashion company van Laack as a new member.

Van Laack was founded in 1881. Since then it has been the company’s ambition to tailor the best shirt in the world. Van Laack sells women’s and men’s clothing.

The first Brand Performance Check for van Laack will take place following the company’s initial year of membership, and will be published on the company page.