Targeting the UK Brands in the Campaign for Garment Workers in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka

This Activist-Led Campaign highlights the human rights abuses related to gender and labour rights that impact individuals and communities in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and India. This second blog concentrates on targeting the brands based on the global research report Abandoned by Fashion.  The UK has eight brands highlighted in the research and therefore AIUK is the most important section.  We are planning campaign actions and are encouraging our activists to suggest stunt ideas based on the asks described below.

The 8 UK brands within the research report are grouped according to their main issues:

1. Boohoo, Tesco and Morisons for refusing to cooperate with Amnesty’s investigation.
2. Primark, Sainsburys, Tesco, M&S, Next for favouring worker led committees over Unions or weighting them equally in auditing, undermining worker’s rights.
3. ASOS, Boohoo, Morisons for not declaring any information on unions and CBAs.

ASOS claims to collect data on trade unions and Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) but does not publish it. Their current audit methodology weights unions and management-led worker committees equally.

• The Ask: Immediately begin public disclosure of union and CBA data for all suppliers and reform the audit scoring system to reward independent unions over worker committees.

Boohoo Group publishes a Tier 1 list but discloses no data on the existence of unions or committees at these sites. They declined to provide detailed information for the Amnesty survey, citing a lack of capacity.

• The Asks:

- Commit to full transparency by reporting on the presence of independent unions across the supply chain and engaging in active human rights due diligence that involves worker organisations.

- Call out for not providing information to Amnesty

- Potentially link to a UK focus through the Leicester garment industry issues which are ongoing.

Marks and Spencer (M&S) has an extreme imbalance, reporting 167 worker committees but only five trade unions. They have zero unionised factories in their listed Indian or Pakistani suppliers.

• The Ask: Implement a proactive strategy to support union formation in India and Pakistan, moving away from a reliance on management-led committees as the primary form of worker voice.

Morrisons publishes a factory list, but don’t provide details on unions or committees. They declined to complete the Amnesty survey.

• The Ask: Expand public reporting to include the status of worker representation and CBAs at all listed factories and set time-bound targets for improving union density in their supply chain.

Next is more transparent than most, listing Tiers 1–3 and distinguishing between unions and committees. However, their data reveals zero unions in Pakistan (against 29 committees) and a heavy dominance of committees over unions in Bangladesh.

• The Ask: Leverage their Tier 2 and Tier 3 transparency to ensure Freedom of Association is respected deeper in the supply chain and use their influence to support union registration in Pakistan.

Primark’s audit methodology explicitly states that the existence or non-existence of a union does not impact a factory's audit score. They do not distinguish between independent unions and management-led committees in their internal processes.

• The Ask: Reform the supplier scorecard so that the presence of an independent trade union and a CBA becomes a weighted criterion for sourcing decisions and "preferred supplier" status.

Sainsbury’s publishes a Tier 1 list but does not distinguish between unions and committees, making it impossible to verify if workers have independent representation.

• The Ask: Update the "TU" factory list to clearly differentiate between independent trade unions and management-coordinated committees, and commit to independent, unannounced inspections to verify these claims.

Tesco publishes lists for Tier 1 and some processing units but fails to disclose any data regarding unions or CBAs. They declined the Amnesty survey citing capacity.

• The Ask: Adopt a public, measurable action plan to ensure living wages and freedom of association are realised in their "F&F" clothing line, starting with full disclosure of union status across all processing and production tiers.

All eight brands to be asked to:

• Publish comprehensive supplier lists for all tiers, including the name, address, number of workers by gender, and the existence of registered trade unions and Collective Bargaining Agreements.
• Distinguish between independent trade unions and management-led worker committees.
• Incentivise Freedom of Association by prioritising suppliers with independent unions for long-term contracts and "ring-fencing" labour costs to ensure wage increases are covered.

Please see the previous blog

Please support this Activist Led Campaign, but please do not suggest boycotts.  For more information, please contact [email protected].