FWF, ILO Better Work to collaborate

Fair Wear Foundation and ILO Better Work, a flagship programme of the UN’s International Labour Organisation, have decided to enter a collaboration to offer the garment companies they work with new benefits and to ultimately enhance their ability to improve labour conditions. The collaboration will officially begin with an 18 month pilot on June 1, 2017.

An agreement was signed at the Human Rights and Garment Conference in the Hague, the Netherlands on May 18, 2017.

The first trial project will start in Vietnam and Bangladesh in factories from which FWF members and Better Work business partners source.

The FWF and Better Work will join forces to fulfil three primary objectives: coordinating factory assessments to reduce the duplication of audits; streamlining improvement processes so more brands can collaborate on remediation; and making a wider range of training opportunities available to tackle priority workplace issues such as sexual harassment, health and safety.

“Together we are capable of better facilitating cooperation between garment brands on improved working conditions. Collaborating with Better Work provides a great opportunity to learn from one other. After all, we have the same objectives, just different approaches,” said FWF associate director Margreet Vrieling.

The collaboration will also enable both parties to expand their work in strategic new areas. Engaging new European brands and smaller garment companies will bring benefits for Better Work, while Fair Wear Foundation will gain access to data gathered as part of Better Work’s research agenda, for example.

Chief of Better Work Dan Rees said, “In an industry with more than 60 million workers and much still to be done to improve adherence to international and national labour standards, we welcome this partnership as a step towards creating decent work for all.”