environment Archives - Labour Behind the Label

Impact Report 2020/21

by | Dec 16, 2021 | Fundraising, reports

This report looks at the impact that Labour Behind the Label has had during the financial year 2020/21. A great deal of our work shifted to focus on the appalling negative impacts of Covid-19 – the virus itself as well as the resultant loss of wages, jobs, benefits and ongoing instability in the garment industry. We held big campaigns and lobbied brands to act. As we are responding to the ongoing Covid-19 crisis, worked on new and emerging human rights violations in the garment industry. There is unquestionable evidence that the fashion industry is profiting from and complicit in Uyghur forced labour in the Xinjiang region of China. We reponded to the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, by calling on brands to publicly condemn the coup. We continued to campaign for greater transparency in the garment industry, and for living wages. We undertook 16 solidarity cases, and saw worker wins in Thailand, Romania and Myanmar.

Read it here: Impact Report 2020/21

Action Update: Number 28

by | Jul 24, 2019 | action updates, Blog, Events, Fundraising, Living wage, News, reports, Resources - Living wage, Resources - Worker safety, Worker safety

Find our what Labour Behind the Label have been up to in our bi-annual Action Update.

In this issue you will find information on Bangladeshi garment workers’ ongoing struggle for fair pay in the face of violent government repression, as well as an update on the future of the Accord and our concerns over worker safety. We share our findings on the dismal state of pay in the global garment industry with the launch of our new report: Tailored Wages UK 2019, and update you on our campaign for H&M to keep its promise and pay garment workers a living wage. This issue also takes a look at fast fashion and the environmental crisis, and contains information on how you can get involved with our campaigns and join our activist army.

Read it here: Action Update: Number 28

Report: Watch Your Step

by | Dec 14, 2017 | Blog, reports, Resources - Shoes, Shoes

A Study on the Social and Environmental Impacts of Tanneries in Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, India.

Every one of us wears shoes every day. But do we ever ask ourselves where the leather comes from to make our shoes? How is the skin of an animal turned into a shoe? Who does this work and under what conditions? This report takes us on a journey to the beginning of a leather shoe. The report looks at the leather industry in India and reveals the social and environmental impacts of tanneries. It provides a glimpse at the adverse conditions at tanneries in India, where people work with minimal or no protective gear, for payment below the minimum wage and no social security benefit. The workers themselves suffer from occupational diseases and the communities around the tanneries have to deal with polluted rivers and drinking water and the dumping of solid waste without regard to environmental standards and rules.

Read the main report: Watch Your Step Report

Read the factsheet: Watch Your Step Factsheet

Published in 2017.

Tanneries in India

Report: Something is a Foot

by | Dec 14, 2017 | Blog, reports

How human rights standards and environmental regulations in the footwear industry are being quietly ignored by banks.

The aim of this investigation is to uncover and analyse financial relationships between European financial service providers and the European shoe industry and, in the process, address the following questions: Which loans and investments are being issued by which financial institutions, under what conditions, to which companies
in the footwear sector? Do the financial service providers specify mandatory ecological and social guidelines or criteria for their business clients? Do financial service providers require responsible business management from their business clients, in particular with regard
to the handling of social and ecological problems in supply chains?

The findings of this investigation trace back to research and analysis carried out by the German NGO Facing Finance on behalf of the Change Your Shoes campaign.
A total of 23 European footwear companies and their financial relationships with 23 different financial service providers were analysed over the period from June 2012 to June 2016. The financial service providers were also invited to complete a survey explaining whether and how social and ecological norms and standards played a role in their loan and equity decisions.

Download the report: Something is a Foot

Published in 2017