Jeans Manufacturing and CSR - CHOICE # 423 (January 16, 2012)
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An international study on corporate social responsibility (CSR)
performance of jeans manufacturing called for manufacturers to
improve in the areas of corporate policies, workers' working
condition, environmental consideration, transparency, and consumer
information.
The study was coordinated by International Consumer Research
& Testing (ICRT) and participated by 14 member organisations.
15 international jeans brands and jeans manufacturers of chain
store brands were invited to take part but only 7 brands responded
and allowed ICRT researchers to visit their factories in
Bangladesh, China, Italy, Morocco, Pakistan and Turkey.
ICRT researchers studied the publicly released CSR reports of
the remaining 8 manufacturers.
Highlights of the study include:
- All brands under survey had drawn up CSR and environmental
policies, but about 80% of them failed to implement monitoring of
supply chain. Only one manufacturer was rated as "very good" in
corporate policy.
- In the areas of workers' benefit and working conditions,
performance was unsatisfactory in the categories of "Health &
Safety and Decent Hours of Work".
- In environmental aspects, 7 brands and their production sites
had formulated environmental policies and restricted substances
list. However, most of the production sites performed poorly in
pollution reduction measures.
- 5 manufacturers were rated "good" in transparency, 2 were
"average", 1 was "poor" and 7 were "very poor".
- In providing information to consumers, 1 manufacturer was rated
"good", 3 "average", 7 "poor" and 3 "very poor". The remaining one
did not provide information.
The study also looked into safety measures adopted by
manufacturers during sandblasting process in which jeans are
sprayed with sand to create a used and old look.
As sand contains silica, it might cause silicosis in the lungs
if workers inhale the dust. The proper use of adequate protective
equipment while performing sandblasting can protect workers from
exposure to silica.
The study found that sandblasting was carried out in 3
production sites. The operation in the Italian production site was
either automated or semi-automated, and workers were wearing
protective clothing. The production site in Bangladesh, however,
practiced manual sandblasting. Although workers were provided with
safety gears and annual lung tests, they had low awareness of the
health and safety risks of such work process. And there was no air
quality monitoring in the facility.
In April 2009, a legal ban on sandblasting was put in place in
Turkey, following an announcement that 40 workers had died from
silicosis from 2005 to 2009.
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