”Most of our graduates will either set up their own businesses or work in a fashion or retail company, so it is important to equip them with knowledge of the ethical issues that they will have to grapple with. If they set up their own businesses and outsource production, they will have to think of the conditions people making the goods will be working in. Some will be buyers for retail chains, but buyers often don’t think of the conditions of workers when negotiating a price for garments. In the current economic crisis, people are going to be looking for bargains, but the vast majority of workers producing this clothing are not on a living wage…. If the students leave Northumbria University with an understanding of how the prices they negotiate will impact on suppliers and workers’ wages … they are more likely to become an ethical buyer or business owner.”

As part of the experience, students heard from fashion industry professionals about their experiences working in factories, learnt about the technical processes of production and spoke to Bangladeshi women who have worked in the Bangladeshi garment industry.

Impactt applaud this innovative teaching experiment and hope that the students’ experiences will remain with them as they enter the fashion industry as the designers, buyers and sourcing directors of the future.

Yesterday, it was announced that Inditex , the owners of the clothing brand Zara, and the International Textile, Garments and Leather Workers Federation (ITGLWF) a global trade union body with 217 affiliated unions worldwide, have signed an International Framework Agreement, designed to reinforce worker rights.

This agreement, with a particular focus on the rights of free trade unions to bargain collectively, means that the two organisations will collaborate to ensure that Inditex’s code of conduct improves workers’ conditions within Inditex’s supply chain.

Inditex has committed to informing all of their suppliers of this agreement, and the ITGLWF will notify all of its member unions worldwide. The two organisations plan to work together on worker education programmes focusing on the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. In the event of a breach of the code Inditex and the ITGLWF will launch a joint investigation of the issue.

To our knowledge this is the first agreement of its kind in the garment industry and it represents a major step forward for Inditex and ITGLWF and the whole area of labour rights.

Our forthcoming report ‘Progress not Perfection’ has identified framework agreements as one of the key emerging tools for ensuring workers conditions and terms of employment are improved. We expect to see many more companies sign similar agreements with international unions over the next ten years. Where Inditex and ITGLWF lead we expect other companies to follow.