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Impactt was in Bangladesh two weeks ago – we went to visit a few factories, including one where we’ve been involved since 2006 on behalf of New Look. We are so pleased with the results that we wanted to share them with you.

When New Look and Impactt started working with Echo, one of New Look’s key garment suppliers, in 2006, the level of labour standards there were, what we could qualify as normal for a traditional Bangladeshi garment factory: wages were low and far from representing a living wage (workers earned an average of £20 per month); hours were high (more than 70 a week). On top of that, management systems were under-developed, efficiency and productivity were low and management was unsure of how to value labour as a benefit.

3 years on, Echo has achieved great results! Management has worked really hard to realign business incentives so it can deliver great quality products at a competitive price and at the same time provide great jobs for workers. The key to the success of this project over and above supplier engagement/vision coupled with New Look’s support was to understand how to motivate workers, identify bottlenecks in the production systems and more importantly create a sense of collective achievement, one that would benefit workers, factory management, as well as the retailer. For the first time in Impactt’s history, workers had barely any complaints!

Key achievements include:

• Maintaining working hours within legal requirements – hours are down to 48 hours a week and no worker has worked more than 10 hours a day since January 2009.
• Paying better wages – the lowest paid now earn 22% more money for far fewer hours than they were working before.
• A workers’ committee has been set up and workers can raise their issues directly with their representatives.
• Providing workers with a free meal every day. Malnutrition in Bangladesh is unfortunately very common – with anaemia a particular issue, especially for women. We were glad to hear that 74% of the workforce had gained weight after working one year at the factory!

New Look’s support has been crucial, extending payment terms and paying a little extra to support the free lunches.  The factory management’s and supplier’s commitment to rolling out the initiative has also been fantastic.

We are now busy extending this methodology to other factories and we will surely update you very soon!