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Homeworkers Worldwide's Peter Williams on the launch of their new toolkit, Finding Hidden Homeworkers.
Homeworkers, mainly women, are often engaged in informal tiers of apparel and footwear supply chains beyond the factory. Their precarious employment, out of sight of auditors and inspectors, combined with weak legal protections, put them at risk of exploitation, and they have some of the worst pay and conditions of any workers in the value chain. These homeworkers are rarely (if ever) identified in factory audits.
With mandatory human rights due diligence on the horizon, it is important that brands and suppliers are adequately prepared to meet their responsibilities.
Retailers and brands may be unaware that homeworkers are making their products. This lack of visibility hampers the ability of companies to address the issues of homeworkers within their own supply chains. With mandatory human rights due diligence on the horizon, it is important that brands and suppliers are adequately prepared to meet their responsibilities.
Finding Hidden Homeworkers in apparel & footwear supply chains, is a toolkit to help businesses improve transparency around homeworking. It brings together best practice, tools and learning gathered from leading practitioners (apparel and footwear retailers, and civil society organisations) who have successfully implemented due diligence and transparency mechanisms in homeworker chains.
Retailers, this toolkit contains a wealth of resources and practical measures you can take to encourage disclosure by your suppliers.
We hope the toolkit will make it easier for brands and their suppliers to work together to improve transparency within homeworker supply chains, and improve the working conditions of homeworkers, who are the most precariously employed workers in many supply chains.
Download the toolkit: Finding hidden homeworkers in apparel & footwear supply chains
To celebrate the launch of this significant new resource we are holding an online expert panel discussion on Tuesday 5 October, 10-11am BST/2.30 IST. The panel will discuss barriers to transparency around homeworking and how companies and others can use the toolkit to overcome these.
You are welcome to join the session - please register here.
For more information please contact Lucy Brill or go to www.homeworkersww.org.uk
The toolkit is an initiative of Hidden Homeworkers, a four year programme led by Traidcraft Exchange, HomeNet South Asia and Homeworkers Worldwide, co-funded by the European Union. Hidden Homeworkers aims to work collaboratively with brands and multi-stakeholder initiatives to create more visibility on homeworking and improve working conditions for homeworkers in cotton, apparel, footwear and accessories supply chains.