Making HRDD Work for Homeworkers

Side Session | 9 June

12:30-13:45 ICT

Making HRDD Work for Homeworkers

Organized by: Homeworkers Worldwide, Transform Trade and Homenet South Asia

Background

According to the ILO’s most recent study, homebased workers make up 8% of the world’s workforce, rising to 11% of female workers – the vast majority turning to homework to combine earning a living with their caring responsibilities. Millions of women homeworkers work in the supply chains of global brands yet like so much work done by women globally, industrial homework is often informal, irregular, low paid and unrecognised. Homeworkers are denied basic rights as workers and have no access to social protection. Their informal employment, in dispersed sub-contracting chains beyond the factory, means they remain invisible to the brands whose products they are making.

Legal measures to strengthen corporate accountability and extend human rights due diligence within international supply chains are gaining traction in Europe and North America. These initiatives oblige companies to investigate and address human rights risks in their supply chains, and provide effective complaints mechanisms to allow workers to hold companies to account where they have been exploited or abused. Whilst we welcome these proposals, we believe that an approach that focusses solely on tier one factories will not address – and could even unintentionally adversely impact upon - the conditions of the workers with the lowest wages and most precarious employment within global supply chains.

About the session

This session will contribute to the wider debate around how to extend due diligence beyond tier one factories, to increase visibility along supply chains, including subcontractors and homeworkers. Whilst we welcome proposals to extend mandatory due diligence within international supply chains, we believe that an approach that focusses solely on tier one factories will not identify or address the conditions of the workers with the lowest wages and most precarious employment in fashion production chains.

Our expert panel will outline the challenges, and explore possible solutions, to best ensure that due diligence processes include – and bring about positive benefits for - all workers within supply chains, prioritising the most vulnerable women workers, such as homeworkers. We begin with our 2021 research firstly on homeworkers within footwear supply chains, earning only 50% of minimum wage rates, and secondly, exploring homeworkers’ perspectives of decent work, based on focus groups in India, Nepal and Pakistan.

The panel will also outline best practices adopted by leading brands and MSIs alongside concrete proposals that civil society actors can offer, to support all brands to increase transparency and ensure that due diligence processes reach workers right along their supply chains. We hope that these inputs will stimulate a lively Q&A session, moving forward the debate on this important issue. Our session draws on the expertise and experience of key partners in the Hidden Homeworkers project co-funded by the EC, including Homeworkers Worldwide, Traidcraft Exchange (recently rebranded as Transform Trade) and HomeNet South Asia.

Objectives

The key objectives of this session are to:

Consider the challenges involved in extending HRDD right along international supply chains, to include informal workers and homeworkers.
Present and discuss examples of how these challenges can be overcome.
Consider what is needed to make HRDD legislation effective for homeworkers.

Key questions

Panelists will reflect on the following questions:

What are the challenges involved in extending Due Diligence right along supply chains, to include homeworkers, who are usually the lowest paid women workers within those chains?
How can these challenges be overcome? Can you point to examples of where progress has been made?
What are the factors affecting international garment and footwear brands’ decisions to participate – or not – in supply chain due diligence on homeworking?
How can MSIs help brands strengthen transparency in supply chains involving homeworkers?
Why does transparency matter for supply chain due diligence on homeworking?
What are some of the key things that mandatory human due diligence would need to insist upon and achieve if it is to work for homeworkers?

Organizers

Day1 programme

Speakers

Francesca Mangano

Francesca Mangano is the Head of CSR and Sustainability at TFG London and oversees the company's sustainability initiatives and human rights policies and works closely with senior executives, NGOs, trade unions, and external stakeholders to ensure that the company's operations are aligned with best practices in sustainability and social responsibility. With nearly 20 years’ experience in fashion and sustainability, throughout her career, she has worked with non-profit organizations, as well as small scale retailers championing fair trade business models, to promote sustainable practices and human rights. She has played a key role in implementing ethical supply chain management systems, reducing environmental impact, and fostering social responsibility within organisations. She is passionate about advancing social justice and environmental conservation.

Bharti Birla

Bharti Birla is a Chief Technical Advisor/Project Manager at the International Labour Organization (ILO). Her current area of engagement is promoting socially responsible businesses, sustainable global supply chains with focus on business and human rights issues - she is leading two projects in South Asia - “Towards fair and sustainable global supply chains: Promoting formalization and decent work for invisible workers in South Asia”, and “Safety and Health for All in South Asia”. She has over 27 years of experience in development and corporate sectors. She also has a background in law and holds a holds Masters in Law (LLM) in Labour and Employment Law from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada. With expertise in issues related to fundamental principles and rights at work (FPRW), social protection, wages, health and safety, access to entitlements/skills/justice and collective bargaining in the context of women and informal economy workers, she provides policy advice and technical support to governments, businesses, trade unions and other stakeholders. She is an international trainer, author, and speaker on labour-related issues.

A. Viyakula Mary

A. Viyakula Mary is the Executive Director of a non-profit organisation Social Awareness and Voluntary Education (SAVE) based in Tiruppur, which is a major textile hub of India. She has decades of experience in the textile industry and continues to work on pertinent issues such as the elimination of child labour, empowerment of women and youth, promotion of fair labour standards, and she is dedicated to contributing towards the comprehensive development of both rural and urban poor community.

Shyam S. Aggarwal

Shyam Aggarwal has been working in the Indian textile industry for the last 34 years. He is the General Manager & Chairman at Radiaant Expovision. With an experience of 27 years at Radiaant, he has witnessed the integration of sustainable development practices within the company’s operations. He ensures that the company meets its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion which align with the 5th goal of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The empowerment of women artisans who predominantly engage in handicraft work in remote regions is one area that he personally focuses on. He firmly believes that enhancing these women artisans' livelihoods and providing them with training and awareness are central to the company’s mission as well as their objectives which include ensuring fair wages, timely payment, and eradicating under-age and forced labour.

Lucy Brill

Lucy Brill is the Director of Homeworkers Worldwide (HWW), a UK-based international gender and labour rights NGO, established in 1999. She currently leads HWW’s advocacy work with companies and multi-stakeholder initiatives through the Hidden Homeworkers programme – improving conditions for homeworkers in South Asia, co-funded by the EC. She joined HWW in 2017, initially leading a study of working conditions in UK garment manufacturing, completing Gender reviews for corporate members of the UK’s ETI and co-ordinating work on a due diligence project with Cividep India, with women working for global footwear manufacturing supply chains in Tamil Nadu, both in factories and at home. Prior to re-joining HWW in 2017 Lucy worked for Oxfam on their UK poverty programme (2007-14), and as a researcher at universities in Bradford (2003-7) and Manchester (2015-17). She is also a Director on the Board of the UK’s ETI representing its NGO Caucus.

United Nations Responsible Business and Human Rights Forum, Asia-Pacific

Side Session | 9 June

12:30-13:45 ICT

Making HRDD Work for Homeworkers

Organized by: Homeworkers Worldwide, Transform Trade and Homenet South Asia

Background

About the session

Objectives

Key questions

Speakers

Contact us

Menu

United Nations Responsible Business and Human Rights Forum, Asia-Pacific

Side Session | 9 June

12:30-13:45 ICT

Making HRDD Work for Homeworkers

Organized by: Homeworkers Worldwide, Transform Trade and Homenet South Asia

Background

​

About the session

Objectives

Key questions

Speakers

Contact us

Menu