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Organic cotton mini-skirt, £25, Topshop

1 Ethical trading and employee welfare
The Ethical Trading Institute (ETI) was set up by a small group of individuals from companies and trade union organisations in 1998 to monitor working conditions in large companies and has established a code of practice based on International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions that is widely accepted as a benchmark by the industry. However, monitoring working conditions is notoriously thorny.

‘Most of our high-street shops have thousands of suppliers scattered across the world, some of whom they have only a fleeting relationship with,’ says Julia Hawkins of the ETI. Members of ETI must accept its Base Code, which asks companies to ensure that union rights are upheld, working conditions are safe and hygienic, hours are not excessive and employment is regular.
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It also asks for a living wage for its workers: ie. a salary that enables employees to meet the needs for food, water, shelter, clothes, education, health care and transport, as well as allowing for a discretionary income, and forbids the use of child labour and inhumane treatment of workers. ‘Companies have to report yearly to the board on what they have achieved, how many suppliers have been checked, how many improvements have been made – especially where they have previously identified problems,’ says Hawkins. However, many campaigners regard the ETI code as too basic.

Best: Gap
In the past, the public has associated it with sweatshops, but Gap is now recognised as far ahead of most other companies in tackling issues relating to worker’s rights. One of its initiatives has led to the formation of a wage board in Bangladesh that is calling for an increase in the country’s minimum wage; and it collaborates with trade unions in Central America, Lesotho, Cambodia and Turkey. ‘Gap provides a state-of-the-art model for contracts for employees’ rights and has the most sophisticated monitoring and verification process,’ says Hawkins.

Worst: Topshop
Of the shops we examined, only Topshop, which is owned by Philip Green’s Arcadia Group, was not a member of the ETI and Green’s stand-off with the organisation has become legendary. ‘Membership of ETI shows that at least companies are willing to have a dialogue over conditions. It’s important that Arcadia does join,’ explains Hawkins, ‘because its companies have such an influence on fast fashion.’

For its part, Arcadia says its own code of conduct is very similar to the ETI, because both have been framed from ILO conventions.
The Arcadia Group places considerable emphasis on its ethical trading policy, and we meet the recommendations of leading international bodies,’ said an Arcadia spokesperson. ‘We have our own ethical sourcing programme which has been in existence since 1996. The Arcadia Group continues to develop and invest in its ethical sourcing programme. We constantly review and update our programme to reflect changes in the worldwide chain… We have recently completed an in-depth review of our code and made the decision to update the group code.’

This means that each factory supplying Topshop must complete a self assessment document, which contains details of the Arcadia Group’s Code of Conduct. The factory signs this document to acknowledge that it has received it and that it will comply with each section of the code. Arcadia also said that Topshop is currently focusing on sourcing an own-label Fairtrade certified range.