Fair Wear and SLCP join forces to improve working conditions
In a significant step towards greater convergence of social & labor data, the Fair Wear Foundation (Fair Wear) and the Social & Labor Convergence Program (SLCP) today announce a new partnership which will see Fair Wear use SLCP data in their HRDD Facilitation Hub to promote impactful human rights due diligence (HRDD) implementation and eliminate audit duplication.
After several years of collaboration between the multi-stakeholder initiatives, Fair Wear and SLCP believe now is the right time to further formalize and deepen their work together to achieve the shared and overarching goal of improved working conditions in supply chains.
They have thus developed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) centred on the following areas of cooperation:
Data convergence: In a significant step towards the streamlining of social and labor data, and the elimination of unnecessary duplication in assessments, SLCP data will be used as a source for facility level information in Fair Wear’s HRDD Facilitation Hub to inform Fair Wear member brands’ HRDD implementation. A further aim will be for anonymized and aggregated SLCP data to feed into Fair Wear’s country risk scoping tool.
Policy engagement: In today’s rapidly evolving regulatory landscape, Fair Wear and SLCP agree there is a need to align on policy engagement to drive effective implementation of regulatory frameworks. The organizations will strive for joined-up policy positions and increased engagement with key stakeholders.
Industry engagement: As true multi-stakeholder initiatives in the garment and textile industry, Fair Wear and SLCP see clear opportunities for leveraging their joint impact to push for systemic change across the industry.
Janet Mensink, CEO of SLCP said, “We are thrilled to be taking the collaboration between Fair Wear and SLCP to the next level with this new agreement. In particular, the use of SLCP data in the Fair Wear HRDD Hub is a breakthrough development in the pursuit of convergence and one that I believe can be a leading example of the way in which data can be shared effectively to reduce duplication and drive improvements to working conditions.”
Fair Wear’s Executive Director, Alexander Kohnstamm, shared, “This MoU between Fair Wear and SLCP is an important step towards industry-wide alignment on what constitutes impactful HRDD implementation. This is critical for ensuring that the new European legislation delivers results for garment workers. I'm excited for SLCP and Fair Wear to team up for that effort.”
Underpinning this new and strengthened partnership is Fair Wear and SLCP’s joint recognition of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Business Conduct as the leading HRDD framework, and their shared belief that there is a need for a smart mix approach on HRDD in supply chains. Both organizations also see the urgency of converging assessments and the sharing of data to avoid duplication and focus resources on improvement programs. Equally, both believe in the importance of information that is locally owned, driven and actionable, in a system where workers, manufacturers, and their representatives can hold brands accountable.
