Codes of Conduct

It is well known that the “race to the bottom” in the global textiles clothing and footwear sectors has come at a public relations and commercial cost to some major multinationals.

From the mid 1990’s to date those in the high street fashion and sports goods sectors, have been constantly on the defensive, forced to face up to their corporate social responsibility. The multinational response in the sector has been a plethora of corporate policies and statements – generally known as ‘codes of conduct’. These voluntary initiatives spell out a set of principles by which the multinational intends to conduct its business with its suppliers/partners, include some statement as to how these principles are to be applied throughout the supply chain, and make provision for the monitoring and/or verification of such application.

Whilst it can be said that some multinationals in Textile Clothing and Footwear now perceive corporate social responsibility as a routine management function, there is great variety in the way that they seek to embrace the implementation of ethical practice within their supply chains. The learning curve has been for some a steep one but ‘csr’ or corporate social responsibility, as it is known, has spawned a new industry of auditors, consultants and trainers and many companies including some of the brand leaders still dabble in more than one approach and more than one multi stakeholder initiative.

For suppliers it is not uncommon to be audited twenty times in any one year by the brands they commercially supply. Not only are multinationals slowly coming to the conclusion that this duplication is inefficient and wasteful, the numerous multi-stakeholder initiatives, which have flourished since the late 1990’s, have now realised that there are needless areas of overlap. The ITGLWF has not dismissed codes of conduct out of hand (see Action Programme) – rather it has encouraged its affiliates to use the norms particularly the ILO Conventions 87 and 98 on on freedom of association and collective bargaining, when seeking trade union recognition at a supplier factory of a particular brand owner. Interestingly, major retailers and merchandisers are now realising that more sustainable approaches need to be found to ensure adherence to the employment standards laid down in their codes and are engaging in dialogue with the ITGLWF and its affiliates to explore ways in which these key two conventions can be implemented.

How to use codes of conduct (318Kb pdf file)