We recently facilitated a seminar in Romania, bringing together suppliers, stakeholders and researchers to showcase examples of doing business while supporting decent working conditions.
Romanian garment factories, a local union and stakeholder initiatives were present to discuss and share best practices.
Syndex, a consultancy organisation for employee representatives and trade unions in Europe, provided insights into their research project on living wages and how they a calculated a living wage benchmark for a specific factory.
The Research Institute for Quality of Life (ICCV) explained how they calculate the basic needs basket (the set of goods and services essential for a person or a family to meet their basic needs) for the Romanian context.
And a trade union member shared the benefits of having a trade union active in their factory.
After sharing the detailed practices, there was time to discuss the most common issues in the garment industry in Romania and together the participants drafted a number of solutions and the roles the different actors could play in working towards these solutions.
The intimate setting encouraged dialogue, interaction and a great level of knowledge exchange among stakeholders. As such, the participants committed to continue sharing best practices and increasing collaboration between Syndex and suppliers to conduct more living wage studies in other factories.
Curious to know more about working conditions in Romania? Check out our country guide.
