As a member of the Fair Wear Foundation, hessnatur has a commitment to summarize the company’s approach to social standards in all areas of productivity, as well as project proposals and goals, in the form of an annual report to the FWF. This report is now available on our corporate website: How do we view social standards, and what do they encompass? Why do we produce in this country or the other? These questions and many more are addressed in the report, which has been given a new layout for this year.

We hope that our report further supports our efforts for transparency along our textile chain, as well as encourages a consciousness for the real value of a piece of clothing – with better knowledge of the kind of work that goes into a T-shirt, a pair of jeans, or a sweater.

Margreet Vrieling is the Verification Coordinator for the Holland based Fair Wear Foundation (FWF). She is responsible for Turkey among other things, which is a focal country for the FWF. She plans the production facility audits here, and is on site to verify adherence to stipulated working conditions in clothing manufacture.

In her presentation, Vrieling addresses the eight social standards which both hessnatur and FWF have adopted, in general as well as specifically in regards to application in Turkey. The eight standards are based upon the core labor standards of the International Labor Organization, and are mandatory for hessnatur as well as all other FWF members. She presents examples of “Best Practice”, in addition to instances of working conditions in need of improvement which she has come across in the course of her audits.

Our Turkish partners, as well as ourselves from hessnatur, are introduced to many valuable details specific to conditions in Turkey, which Margreet also compares to international circumstances. One recurring topic is, for instance, that of overtime hours. All brands which manufacture here place their production orders at the same time, all wanting to receive their wares in time to display them in stores promptly at the start of the new season. We at hessnatur therefore ensure that there is ample production time allowed between placing an order and actual delivery to our warehouse in Butzbach.

The problem with overtime hours, by the way, was recognized back in 1919 when laws regulating working ours, and, correspondingly, overtime ours, were established internationally. Since then – in theory – there have been clear guidelines regulating who works for how long. Despite these regulations, adherence is still a challenge within industries such as textile manufacture.

A project is currently underway in Turkey addressing “Social Dialogue” between management and employees, organized through the Fair Wear Foundation. Ceren Isat, trainer and advisor, reports over her experiences in training seminars for seamsters and seamstresses. What’s working well, and how are varying levels of education, as well as different cultures and social perspectives approached. Seamsters and seamstresses working for hessnatur suppliers are being schooled within their manufacturing facilities, specifically addressing individual wishes and the eight core social standards. Additional suppliers have decided today to take part in the project. A great chance to establish a consciousness on all levels for the issues involved.

Like I said, a consciousness for good working conditions is immensely important to us. It’s not enough to just post a code of conduct on the factory floor. We want the management as well as the employees at the sewing tables to know what their rights are and to be aware of what is expected in the course of a regular working day. Further seminars are scheduled for March and April in Istanbul.

To recap our management seminar in Istanbul: we had an exciting and informative day. A good forum for the exchange of information and ideas, of which there were many. New possibilities of cooperation were explored and initiated, like the new participants in the “Social Dialogue” project. Together – that word best describes the essence of the day. hessnatur, the management and employees of our manufacturing facilities, our agents on site, a local means of training and advice, and a multi-stakeholder organization. All working together for the common goal of not just implementing standards, but setting an example for good working conditions in the textile industry.

Last Tuesday, all of hessnatur’s buyers, as well as the social standards team in the Innovation and Ecology Department – Rolf Heimann, our intern Rabea, and myself – have been in Istanbul in order to bring working conditions in manufacture into focus. All of our suppliers and agents in Turkey joined us for the workshop.

As a company operating along the principles of sustainability, ethical social standards in clothing manufacture is of great importance to hessnatur. That’s why we keep our standards in place not only via our own audits, but also in cooperation with the Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) since 2005. The FWF is a multi-stakeholder operation based in Holland, and enjoys international recognition for its high degree of competence in ensuring ethical working standards.

The goal of our workshop, along with manufacturing facility audits which have already been accomplished, was to further heighten awareness for social standards, as well as to join together in a dialogue with our colleagues from Purchasing and the Fair Wear Foundation. We invited our suppliers in Germany to a social standards seminar in Butzbach last year.

To start off the event, Rolf Heimann and I explained our internal monitoring system in more detail, and introduced the criteria for supplier evaluation at hessnatur as well as our living wage study. Margreet Vrieling from the Fair Wear Foundation introduced examples of “Best Practice” this afternoon, and Ceren Isat, advisor to the FWF’s “Social Dialogue” project in Turkey, gave an overview of her work – I will come up with more information about these presentations.

A great success for hessnatur and our commitment to social standards – at this year’s Fair Wear Foundation member’s convention in Amsterdam, we were presented once again with FWF’s Best Practice Award! Last year, it was our monitoring system for social standards which earned us the votes of our fellow members.

Five FWF members were selected to present their current projects in the field of labor conditions. And among them was Stefanie Karl, who is responsible for issues regarding social standards at hessnatur. Each project was assessed by all the members present, and our project on “Living Wages” captured the members interest most!

The project entailed surveying all 142 production facilities working for hessnatur regarding the minimum, maximum, and median net wages received by full time seamstresses and seamsters.

Additionally, the program analyzed minimum wage standards provided within the various production countries, as well as poverty line trends and criteria for living wages. Using these studies, experts could ascertain how well the facility workers were actually paid. The project provides a basis from which to strive for living wages within production facilities and to implement them in collaboration with suppliers.

You can read more about Fair Wear Foundation’s Member’s Day here in our blog.

Once a year, the Dutch Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) sends out invitations to Amsterdam, where it hosts an annual members’ convention, appropriately named “Members’ Day“. FWF members share a dedication to improving the working conditions found in the textile industry, and their numbers are growing from year to year. And that’s good! The first companies to join the foundation did so in 2004, and hessnatur became the first German member in 2005.

The foundation’s director, Erica van Doorn, greeted around 80 representatives at the gathering, from the organization’s 65 member companies. The focus this year: wages in textile production. Ashim Roy, from India, gave the first presentation of the day. He represented Asia Floor Wage, an organization which has developed a means of calculating a living wage in Asian countries. The calculation is based upon how many calories a person needs daily in a given country. The local price of food produces a cost factor, which can then be apportioned according to calories. Additionally, costs for rent, transportation, and health are factored in. The results of these calculations reflect the amount an employee must receive in order for the payment to be considered a living wage. The benchmark of 3,000 calories per day for an adult caused some controversial discussion amongst FWF members – the argument being that the caloric requirements were set too high.

On the other hand, no comprehensive data exists regarding the living conditions of textile workers in Asian production countries (which are considered the center of worldwide textile production). In this regard, the Asia Floor Wage is at least a starting point from which to discuss fair wages with production facilities and trade associations in order to bring about wage increases.

The fact that the topic of wages has come into discussion in production countries like China or Bangladesh over the last few months is not because of consumer pressure, but rather originates from the workers themselves. In Bangladesh, seamstresses are demonstrating for better working conditions and higher wages. And in China, suicides in an electronics production facility has forced movement in the government toward rethinking the status quo. These developments support the prognosis that the days of cheap textiles, at least those from China, may soon be over. A secondary effect could be that production facilities in China might relocate to other Asian countries, like Cambodia, Laos, or Burma, where production costs are comparatively lower. When it comes down to it, the consumer, governed under the “politics of the pocketbook”, will once again decide. Unfortunately, such decisions are seldom based upon sustainability and fair trade, but rather the bottom dollar, more often than not.

But I found an example out of one of FWF’s Member’s Day workshops quite engaging: If a normal, everyday T-shirt – let’s say, from Cambodia – would cost 40 cents more, the workers making it could receive a living wage. An obvious challenge is to assure that the extra money actually lands in the workers’ pockets, of course. 40 cents more for a T-shirt. We should be good for that, don’t you think?