How can we refocus industry efforts to improve our impact on textile workers’ lives?

28 February 2025

How can we refocus industry efforts to improve our impact on textile workers’ lives?

Tamar Hoek, Solidaridad’s Senior Policy Advisor Sustainable Fashion, reflects on this year’s OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment and Footwear Sector, sharing her suggestions for actions the industry can take now to ensure a measurable impact on textile workers’ lives.

Textile workers, Bangladesh © Creative Crumble Collective

We all enjoy the OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment and Footwear Sector in Paris; it’s a fantastic opportunity to network and discuss sector issues in person while meeting so many like-minded people. But this year, even more than in previous years, there was an elephant in the room. As a fellow attendee asked during the event: ‘What about textile workers? Can we have some concrete results next year on how we have improved their lives?’

If this event is representative of the sector’s progress in improving supply chain transparency, workers’ livelihoods and environmentally sustainable textile production on the whole, then we’re not focused enough on creating a tangible impact.

Discussion is important, up to a certain point. Now it’s time to commit to, and take, concrete action.

How could we make the OECD forum more impact-focused?

We need to envision the future we want for the garment and footwear sector and commit to pursuing shared goals towards meaningful, collective progress in this direction.

I share here examples of concrete actions and ideas on the themes of responsible purchasing practices, and due diligence more generally, that I suggest we revisit annually at the OECD forum so we can track the industry’s collective progress:

1. Establish binding agreements on responsible purchasing practices

During one of the forum sessions someone highlighted the lack of binding agreements in the industry – the International Accord is the only one I can think of. If we see responsible purchasing practices as a precondition for more sustainable behaviour, we also need accountability. Major brands and retailers must commit to time-bound, legally-binding agreements (around the five principles of the Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices) ensuring:

integration and reporting

equal partnership

collaborative production planning

fair payment terms

sustainable costing.

2. Supplier and worker-led initiatives

An independent coalition of workers’ unions, suppliers and auditors should publish real-time data on wages, order cancellations and violations of worker rights. Do we need an independent dashboard, that goes beyond the Industry We Want, to track commitments from brands, evidence on remediation efforts or case studies that actually show how workers’ lives have improved?

3. Develop a purchasing practices progress tracker towards equal partnership, better wages and payment terms

This would include key purchasing practice metrics (using the Purchasing Practices HRDD Framework), a brand scorecard and accountability for improvement. Brands and suppliers need to agree on measurable indicators to track progress. (I’d love to see the PPHRDD framework accepted as an industry-wide progress tracker).

4. Due diligence in action: Towards mutual accountability

Shift from a top-down, buyer-controlled model to a mutual accountability framework where both buyers and suppliers are responsible for fair labor practices and sustainable (environmental) production. Including:

a balanced scorecard

feedback loops from suppliers and workers

shared responsibility for remediation.

There are already good examples, like Better Buying or apps that include supplier or workers’ feedback, but these are not yet implemented on a larger scale. It would be great if this could be scaled over the next year.

5. Climate accountability: Linking sustainability and labor rights

Shift away from vague climate goals and link sustainability directly to workers’ livelihoods with a clear tracking system and holistic programmes that combine social, environmental and commercial practices. A proper due diligence risk assessment should give clarity on all the risks, and the potential to (while mitigating or remediating) avoid unintended consequences. (I think we all know the example of not installing air conditioning in factories as it increases the GHG emissions).

Achieving the above in one year is maybe too ambitious (and it’s certainly not only up to Solidaridad to take responsibility), but we should all make this our aim. I hope that, at the latest, we can report on concrete action within two years’ time; reviewing how many brands and retailers have committed to binding agreements, and how many suppliers are involved in supplier-led initiatives. I think we all want to see clear progress with regards to purchasing practices, and on joint due diligence tracks and holistic programmes.

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Follow Tamar Hoek on LinkedIn to join the conversation.

Solidaridad is part of the Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices' (CFRPP) learning and implementation community working to support brands on the path to better purchasing practices.