Promoting sound Industrial Relations in the garment industry

In garment factories around the world, short lead-times, constantly changing styles, and downward pressure on costs can lead to stress on the production floor. Businesses can struggle to pay workers on time, there may be tensions over workflow, and conflicts over the level of pay and benefits paid to workers. These pressures often result in low workplace morale, lost productivity, and disputes that result in factory closures.

To prevent and resolve conflict as close to the source as possible, the promotion of sound Industrial Relations’ practices, based on the ILO’s Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, is a key dimension of our work in the industry.

At factory, country and global levels, our staff focus on working with employers and workers to promote respectful communication and establish mechanisms for information sharing, consultation and negotiation.

Our research and experience has shown that the development of a climate of mutual respect, along with the establishment of mechanisms and procedures for consultation, information sharing and negotiation pays off, and is mutually beneficial to workers and businesses.

At the factory level

At the heart of our factory advisory service is the principle of building trust and cooperation between legitimate representatives of workers and employers. The work of bipartite (worker-management) committees is a stepping stone for the establishment of meaningful social dialogue at the factory level.

The factory improvement plan guides the representatives in their work, ensuring that improved communication leads to more effective prevention and resolution of workplace problems.

Better Work promotes freely elected worker representatives on national committees; the process including trade unions and ensuring a proportional representation of women. A recent impact assessment of Better Work shows this practice is making a positive impact on compliance.

Developing the skills and confidence of worker representatives to carry out their role is paying dividends in countries like Vietnam, where has had a long-standing partnership with the ILO’s Bureau for Worker Activities (ILO ACTRAV), the global justice organization Union Aid Abroad (APHEDA) and the Vietnamese General Confederation of Labor (VGCL) to strengthen the role of workers and their trade union representatives at factory level. Our worker-management committees even inspired national policy change beyond the garment industry: in 2013, Vietnam introduced a ground-breaking reform to its labour law, permitting worker-management committees in all factories and all sectors for the first time.

Establishing more effective grievance mechanisms at the factory level in countries like Haiti and Indonesia is also helping employers and workers to resolve more rights-based issues before they become disputes.

In Bangladesh, too, we are drawing on evidence from our Progress and Potential report to make the business case for social dialogue, helping to persuade stakeholders that investing production time in social dialogue can result in strong business outcomes.

Across countries, an innovative s an accessible set of images, posters, games and videos used to help break the ice in worker/management meetings and stimulate consideration by delegates of tangible ‘good’ and ‘bad’ practices in their own workplace, organization or role in the supply chain.

Social Dialogue and Industrial Relations

Industrial relations refers to the systems in which workers, employers and governments engage to set the ground rules for the governance of work relationships.

Social dialogue takes place when governments, employers and workers consult, negotiate or exchange information about the world of work, as well as economic and social policy.

Sound industrial relations and effective social dialogue are an essential means to promote better wages and working conditions as well as peace and social justice.

Beyond the factory floor

Examples of Better Work’s promotion of sound Industrial Relations’ practices include:

♦ In collaboration with the Indonesian Employers Association, APINDO, Better Work Indonesia rolled out a worker-management Industrial Relations’ training programme for employers and trade unions, which helped both parties improve their negotiation skills and understand the needs and constraints of their counterparts.

♦ In partnership with the ILO’s Labour Administration and Labour Inspection team (LAB-ADMIN) and the Ministry of Labour in Haiti, we connected employers and unions with the Ministry to seek advice, reconcile differences and mediate conflicts that cannot be resolved at the factory level.

♦ Working with major manufacturers and investors in the garment industry, we identified risks to industrial relations, and developed good practices and policies that can be used internationally, as our recent Business Forum demonstrates.

♦ As part of our work with apparel brands and retailers, we have forged partnerships with the Gap Inc., PVH and other companies to promote sound Industrial Relations practices throughout their supply chains. This work is reinforced at sector level through regular engagement between brands and the ILO’s three constituent groups: unions, employer associations and governments.

♦ At global level, we partner with global unions and global employer organizations to advance the social dialogue objectives of Better Work. The programme’s global advisory committee includes the International Organization for Employers (IOE), and the United States Council for International Business (USCIB), as well as elected representatives of international apparel brands. The International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) and IndustriALL Global Union represent the interests of workers, including their nationally relevant affiliates.