Continental Clothing has won the FWF Best Practice Award 2016. Both the jury panel of industry experts and the audience praised the British brand for their Living Wage project in India.
In January, Continental Clothing launched a clothing line labelled FAIR SHARE. The range of T-shirts and sweatshirts carry a price premium that is directly passed to the garment workers in India to enhance their monthly wages.
Continental Clothing first conducted research into the wages and living conditions specific to the geographical area where the factory is located. Based on this data, a benchmark was determined for the minimum income required to provide a decent living for a typical family in the area. Continental Clothing calculated the difference between the current wages and this living wage and then converted this number into an additional amount that was needed to be paid for each garment produced at the factory.
\Mariusz Stochaj from Continental Clothing received the award during Fair Wear Foundation’s Annual Conference 2016. Over 150 FWF member companies and other FWF stakeholders gathered in The Volkshotel in Amsterdam to discuss how to Redesign the Industry, this year’s conference theme.
The Best Practice Award ceremony is one of the conferences’ highlights. This year, the jury picked three winners: Continental Clothing, Stanley & Stella for supporting an anti-harassment committee in Bangladesh and a consortium of three brands —Vaude, Salewa and Jack Wolfskin—who facilitated a suppliers training in Myanmar. In the end, the audience voted for Continental.
To highlight the projects, and to serve as inspiration for other brands, all Best Practice winners will receive a video about their winning cases. During the conference FWF showed the video of last year’s winner, Deuter. You can watch the video here.
