Extending ethical trade to an invisible workforce

ETI members collaborated to produce the first ever comprehensive set of guidelines to tackle homeworkers conditions. Since then more companies are publicly acknowledging that homeworkers are a legitimate and vital part of their supply chain, and taking active steps to improve their conditions.

Why homeworkers?

Homeworkers are involved in the production of a wide range of hand-worked products, from sequinned dresses and embroidered purses to shoes, footballs and electrical goods. Homeworking enables hundreds of millions of poor families to make a living. But homeworkers are among the most vulnerable and marginalised workers in the supply chain. They frequently have no legal status, no job security and no benefits like health insurance. Typically they receive lower pay than factory workers so their children may often help with their work, at the expense of their education. There is an urgent need to improve their working conditions.

But retailers and brands face a real challenge in identifying homeworkers in their supply chains. Homeworkers are virtually invisible because of their sheer numbers, the informality of their work, and the complexity of intermediaries between them and the sourcing company.

Phase one: developing a toolkit for sourcing companies

The ETI Homeworkers Project was created in 2002 and set out initially to:

• develop guidelines to enable companies to locate homeworkers in the supply chain;
• establish principles for using homeworkers;
• provide a practical toolkit for implementing the ETI Base Code in this context; and
• learn about the effectiveness of different approaches to tackling poor working conditions.

After extensive field studies of homeworking in the UK (Christmas cracker assembly) and Northern India (embellished goods) a draft set of guidelines were issued in 2006. The ETI Homeworker Guidelines was the first comprehensive guidance document to set out how companies, trade unions and NGOs can tackle homeworkers' issues (the guidelines have since been revised - see below).

The Homeworker Group also proved an effective lobbying force in the UK during this period. For example, it helped win amendments to the National Minimum Wage Regulations (1999). This strengthened the entitlements of homeworkers and other piece-rate workers to the UK minimum wage.

And in India, the collaboration that was fostered in developing the Guidelines has led to the creation of the National Homeworker Group, the first-ever multi-stakeholder body working to improve homeworkers' conditions in an area of members' shared supply chains, which is already producing real benefits for homeworkers in Uttar Pradesh.

Phase two: driving change in members' supply chains

Since the draft Homeworker Guidelines were launched in 2006, the Group has concentrated its energies on driving their implementation in member companies' supply chains. More companies have joined the Group, membership of which requires companies to take active steps to identify homeworkers in their supply chains, and to report regularly on what they are doing to improve their conditions.

Several ETI member companies have now adopted Board-ratified policies on homework, to communicate their acceptance of homeworking and their commitment to exercising their responsibility to improving their conditions. Others have started monitoring activities, forming partnerships with specialist NGOs to help calculate fair piece-rates. A few have conferred employee status on homeworkers.

A second edition of the ETI homeworker guidelines was published in 2010, encapsulating the experiences and insights gained from the past three years of piloting the guidelines. Members are continuing to share experience, practical tools and resources on homeworkers, as well as starting to tackle some of the more challenging homeworker issues such as managing contractors and subcontractors, setting piece rates, and working with local trade unions and NGOs.

Members are continuing to share experience, practical tools and resources on homeworker, as well as starting to tackle some of the more challenging homeworker issues such as managing contractors and subcontractors, setting piece rates, and working with local trade unions and NGOs.