Corporate Accountability and Government Policy

180+ Orgs Demand Apparel Brands End Complicity in Uyghur Forced Labour

Jul 23, 2020 —

Today, 72 Uyghur rights groups are joined by over 100 other civil society organisations and labour unions from around the world in calling on apparel brands and retailers to stop using forced labour in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (“Uyghur Region”), known to local people as East Turkistan. The signatory organizations, including MSN, are urging brands and retailers to end their complicity in the Chinese government’s human rights abuses.

Brands still refusing to compensate workers abandoned in 2018 LD factory closure

Feb 25, 2020 —

Two years after the LD garment factory in El Salvador closed unexpectedly, the 824 workers who lost their jobs are still waiting to be paid the remaining US$1.7 million they are legally owed in outstanding severance.

While a partial payment of US$600,000, was paid by Global Brands Groups (GBG), the intermediary who placed the orders with LD for Levi’s, Ralph Lauren, Walmart, and PVH, owner of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, workers’ and labour rights organizations’ demands for full payment of the outstanding debt have been unmet.

Brands and civil society groups raise concerns over changes to Cambodia’s trade union law

Jan 25, 2020 —

Two separate joint letters have been sent by international civil society organizations and global apparel and footwear brands to Cambodian Prime Minister, Samdech Hun Sen, expressing their concerns regarding recent amendments to the country’s Law on Trade Unions, which were approved by the Cambodian Senate in early December 2019.

The first letter, dated December 18, 2019, was co-signed by 36 Cambodian and international civil society organizations, including MSN, and the second by 23 global brands and multi-stakeholder organizations with an interest in Cambodia.

Precedent-setting Agreements Reached in Lesotho on Gender-based Violence at Work

Oct 30, 2019 —

Photo: Workers Rights Consortium Sam Mokhele, General Secretary, NACTWU; Thusoana Ntlama, Program Coordinator, FIDA; May Rathakane, Deputy General Secretary, IDUL; Libakiso Matlho, National Director, WLSA; Daniel Maraisane, Deputy General Secretary, UNITE

On August 15, 2019, a number of complementary, legally binding agreements were signed to launch a pilot program aimed at eliminating sexual harassment and gender-based violence in five major garment and textile factories in the Southern African country of Lesotho.

Government updates Ombudsperson’s mandate, still fails to provide investigatory powers

Oct 4, 2019 —

In the final days prior to dropping the writ for the federal election, the Trudeau government published a revised mandate of the Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE). While making minor changes to the most highly criticized clauses, the revised mandate fails to provide the new office the investigatory powers it needs to hold Canadian mining, oil and gas, and garment companies accountable for human rights violations when conducting business abroad.

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