How you can become an ethical shopper and help exploited garment factory workers

CHANCES are what you are wearing right now was made in a sweatshop.

Proud Melbourne small business Etiko was founded by Nick Savaidis (second from left) and is a pioneer in ethical clothing. Picture: Steve Tanner

CHANCES are what you are wearing right now was made in a sweatshop.

With today’s increasing demand for fast, cheap fashion it can be difficult to know where and how your clothes were made.

The 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory in Bangladesh, which led to the death of 1134 people, shocked global consumers about the unregulated outsourcing of labour.

The tragedy led to the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Accord and rising awareness about conditions in garment factories.

But international progress has been slow with, as recently as last month, at least 13 people dying in a fire at a suspected illegal garment factory in India.

Australian workers are not immune to exploitation, with the Textile Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia saying they found unsafe and exploitative work conditions in Melbourne suburbs on a weekly basis.

National secretary Michele O’Neil said they regularly found garment workers, often migrant women, sewing from home and earning less than the minimum legal wage.

“Safety is also a huge issue — we’ve got people working in their homes under very dangerous conditions or in factories where the only entrance and exit are a locked roller door, cables and wires that are not earthed properly,” Ms O’Neil said.

Ethical Clothing Australia (ECA) has an accreditation program for brands that make their clothes in Australia and abide by legal pay and entitlements for workers.

Brands such as Anthea Crawford, Cue Clothing, Perri Cutten and Akubra make the cut — but this only takes into account the clothes they produce in Australia.

ECA spokeswoman Sigrid McCarthy said ethical fashion did not need to be expensive, and that brands had a responsibility to look after the people who produced their goods.

For clothes that aren’t made in Australia, consumers can look to brands that have Fairtrade accreditation.

These included Australian brands Etiko and Audrey Blue, which were highlighted in the Australian Fashion Report as standouts who ensured living wages were paid to workers.

National Public Radio’s Planet Money T-shirt Project estimated achieving a living wage for someone making T-shirts in Bangladesh could incur an additional cost as low as an extra 40¢ (US).

“There’s an argument that it is too expensive to produce clothes ethically but to that we would say it is your responsibility to ensure your workers are looked after,” Ms McCarthy said.

Oxfam Australia’s Naughty or Nice list highlights brands that publish at least 70 per cent of names and locations of the factories.

While businesses being transparent about their supply chain didn’t guarantee the workers were being treated satisfactorily, Oxfam Australia labour rights expert Joy Kyriacou said it helped rights organisations investigate working conditions and empower workers to raise their concerns.

“We want these people to be able to keep their jobs but we want them working under safe and well-paid conditions,” Ms Kyriacou said.

Ms O’Neil urged people to learn more about their favourite brands and to challenge their work
practices.

“Some companies’ business models are built on exploitation and there are few companies whose behavioural changes in this industry that have come about without public scrutiny,” Ms O’Neil said.

LEADING THE WAY IN ETHICAL FASHION

SINCE opening out of the back of a Wantirna home 10 years ago, clothing brand Etiko
continues to lead the way in ethically sourced and made clothes.

The brand was inspired by founder Nick Savaidis’ own experiences watching the exploitation of his mother and female relatives as they hunched over sewing machines in the living rooms of Melbourne’s inner-northern suburbs.

He started asking shops questions about where their clothes were made and, dissatisfied with the vague answers, realised there could be a market for ethically made and environmentally sourced clothing.

Now based in Croydon South, Etiko has Fairtrade accreditation — the first non-food brand to do so in the Pacific region — and works with garment factories in India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

The accreditation is rigorous, difficult to obtain and even harder to retain.

“We do our own visits to factories, we don’t just rely on external auditors,” Mr
Savaidis said.

“We only work with a limited number of suppliers, but I have got to know the workers who make the clothes and a lot of the farmers who grow the cotton for our clothes.

“We have a long-term commitment with our suppliers — they tell us what they need in order to guarantee safe and proper working practices.”

On top of paying fair wages, Etiko pays a Fairtrade premium to each factory, which is invested in social and economic projects to benefit workers, their families and communities.

This included benefits such as health insurance for workers or schooling for their children.

Mr Savaidis said it was tough for Etiko to compete with bigger brands more concerned about profit than ethical clothes production, but consumer interest was growing.

“We keep our overheads very low — we’re based in the outer suburbs, we rely more on events and word of mouth than big marketing spend,” he said.

He said consumer demand had led to widespread availability of fair trade coffee and ethically grown paper, and he hoped that fair trade clothes would become equally as accessible

“Don’t be a robotic consumer. You need to ask where your clothes came from,” Mr Savaidis said.

“The big brands won’t change their ways out of generosity — we need to challenge them.”

This month Etiko was the joint winner of the business category at the Human Rights Awards.

For more information visit etiko.com.au

TIPS FOR THE ETHICAL SHOPPER

■ The Good on You app rates brands based on their supply chain impacts on workers, the environment and animals

■ The annual Australian Fashion Report, produced by Baptist World Aid Australia, grades brands in terms of supply chain transparency, living wages for workers and how materials are sourced

■ For clothes made locally, check out Ethical Clothing Australia’s accreditation list

■ Check out Etiko and Audrey Blue designs

■ Engage with your favourite brands and question their practices