H&M, Esprit back factory worker initiative in China

SHANGHAI – H&M, Esprit and KappAhl are taking part in a new initiative in China aimed at boosting labour conditions, increasing opportunities for skills development, and ensuring fair wages for factory workers. The project will work with just a handful of factories initially but the long-term aim is to roll out IT-based trainings, systems and methodologies on wage management to broader industry. The initiative will draw on the technology of QuizRR which provides digital solutions for companies to manage risk and increase business opportunities in global supply chains.

Leading the initiative is Solidaridad, with funding from the ASN Bank. The partnership aims to contribute to ensuring decent labour conditions and fostering the progress towards achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) in the sector. The official launch of the programme took place on 25 July 2019 in Shanghai, China.

Solidaridad will provide onsite guidance, support and trainings, and in a statement, the NGO said that, “dialogue between workers and management will be promoted to make certain that these topics create long lasting impact. This will ensure that factory workers as well as management have an active role in the development and implementation of the solutions, creating an inclusive approach and local ownership.”

Solidaridad and H&M have previously partnered to address key social and environmental challenges in several producing countries. Based on the fair wage methodology, H&M developed the wage management systems approach. “Our cooperation with H&M, in connection with QuizRR, has consequently resulted in this initiative to further test scalable solutions to improve labour conditions in China,” said a press note from Solidaridad.

Prior to launching this pilot project, Solidaridad had commissioned a problem analysis of the textile industry in China. It found that worker dissatisfaction is an increasingly a major problem, often as a high staff turnover. This also presents a challenge for the factories as well as international buyers.