14 Feb Working Together to Support Ethical Employment Practices

On 2^nd February, Fashion-Enter Ltd attended the final meeting for the industry with the Apparel and General Merchandise Public /Private protocol meeting. Over 95 companies attended this meeting with the aim of working as a collective to eliminate sharp employment practices that are an infringement of the Modern Slavery Act. 

FEL has been a consistent voice for manufacturing during this time, the protocol recognises the intent of the Labour Market Enforcement Bodies (LMEB) and the Apparel and General Merchandise (AGM) Brands need to work together and share information with the overarching aim to protect vulnerable and exploited workers. 

LMEBs and AGM Brands meet regularly under an agreed meeting Terms of Reference in order to:

• Establish and maintain the effectiveness of the Protocol

• Discuss trend information, high risk activities, lessons learned and positive initiatives to

engender a collaborative working relationship

• Maintain an actionable series of steps which reduce worker exploitation

The emphasis is on the proper exchange / sharing of intelligence, where permitted under the law, to support targeted enforcement activity and investigations and to prevent abuse, harm or injury to workers in vulnerable conditions. In particular this relates to:

• Indicators of forced labour and modern slavery

• Underpayment of National Minimum Wage

• Systemic physical and/or mental mistreatment of workers

• Systemic use of workers without the legal right to work

• Employment tax fraud and evasion

• Coercive benefit fraud including Tax Credits

• Serious risk to the health and safety of workers

• Evasion of employment laws

Fashion-Enter Ltd CEO Jenny Holloway commented: “If we are to provide the right advice for our brands at the FC Designer Workspace and the students that we teach then it’s vital that FEL provides the latest advice and information on supply chain and logistics. This 3-hour meeting provided all the updates from the Gangmasters Labour Abuse Authority as well as understanding what initiatives are being incorporated into the supply chain by retailers and etailers. 

“One of the key areas within the supply chain as been the violation of workers rights whereby machinists have been paid as little as £3 per hour. A recent report by the TUC highlights the issues that have occurred and these issues are then passed on to the FC Designer Workspace tenants.”

A summary of the report is here: 

https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/2021-10/Fixing_Leicester%27s_Garment_Trade_Report.pdf