Fashion is a powerful social and cultural force that enables creative expression and communication among individuals, communities, and whole nations. Manufacture of fashion products relies on skilled labor that offers livelihoods, supports valuable artisan traditions and inspires generations of creative communities all over the world. Yet, the fashion sector also has a notoriously complex supply chain and it is complicit in practices that perpetuate child labor, modern slavery, poverty and compromise animal welfare. The fashion sector is also connected to human well-being, as its practices can celebrate but also cause anxiety in terms of body image and identities linked to gender, ethnicity and religious beliefs.

Production of cash crops such as cotton is labor intensive. It is estimated that more than half of the 168 million children around the world who are forced to work are agricultural laborers. They harvest in extreme temperatures, handle toxic chemicals, carry heavy loads and operate dangerous machinery. Child laborers lack access to education and are paid significantly less than adults, regardless of long working hours.

While a living wage is a human right, most of the estimated 80 million employees of the global garment industry are denied a fair wage. These workers are mostly women who get no compensation for forced overtime, and have little job security or trade union rights that would enable collective bargaining. As the 2013 collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Bangladesh sadly highlighted, these women often work in unsafe and unhealthy environments. The urgency of improving working conditions, gender equality and transparency across the fashion industry was brought to worldwide attention by the Who Made My Clothes campaign that developed as a result of this incident.

- Centre for Sustainable Fashion

Animal welfare, one of the key ethical concerns of the industry, refers to the treatment of animals involved in the fashion supply chain. For many years, activists have been calling public attention to the unlawful killing and widespread mistreatment of animals across the fur, leather, exotic leather, down feather, mohair, angora, silk and wool industries. The animals whose skin, fur or feathers are used to make fashion products frequently suffer severe mistreatment and cruel handling practices such as kicking or being dragged by their body parts, tails, horns or ears. While animal welfare is a critical concern in countries with insufficient animal welfare legislation, including India and China who provide the majority of the supplies, cruel practices are also reported in countries where legislation with regards to humane treatment of animals is much more advanced.

The demands and profitability of the trade are reflected in the existence of large-scale factory farming, where animals are kept in crowded areas or battery cages without enough air circulation or daylight, and are slaughtered by methods such as gassing or electrocution. In some instances, animals are reported to be skinned alive. Live plucking is a widespread practice because feathers can regrow, and so keeping animals alive increases profit. Wild animals required for the leather and fur trades are often caught in painful traps that break their body parts and leave them suffering for hours before they are finally killed. Animal injuries during shearing for the mohair and wool trade are common, as laborers tend to be paid by volume rather than by the hour. Quick work results in cuts and careless handling of sheep. The controversial practice of mulesing, a painful removal of flesh around the buttocks to protect sheep against the parasite flystrike, is still widely performed in Australia and is often carried out without the use of anesthetics.^(1,2)

See also: Endangered species, Biodiversity, Respect, Well-being, Natural materials, Cashmere, Faux fur, Fish skin.

An artisan is a skilled maker who makes products by hand with an exceptional manual dexterity and tacit knowledge. Artisanal labor has always been inseparable from the culture of fashion and it still plays a key role in the making of fashion products, from the hand embroidery and weaving communities in India and Thailand to the luxury master craftsmen and craftswomen in the heritage fashion houses of Europe. Despite the high level of skill required, artisanal labor is notoriously exploited because the long hours needed for hand production make it impossible for artisanal products to compete on price point with mass-manufactured alternatives. Globalization has further devalued artisanal labor by increasing global competition and enabling the art and craft dealers and fashion brands from advanced economies to profit from low labor costs and insufficient labor rights legislation in developing countries with rich artisan traditions.^(1-8)

See also: Heritage crafts, Traditional knowledge, Care, Off-shore manufacture, Transparency, Supply chain, Human rights, Modern slavery, Living wage, In-work poverty, Diversity, Decolonization, Global inequality, Equality, Localism, Reshoring.

Bonded labor, also known as debt bondage or debt slavery, is a form of modern slavery where a person’s labor is exploited to repay a debt to a creditor. The conditions of repayments are often unclear, which can tie whole families into bonded labor, sometimes for generations, without any control over their debt. Cotton farming is strongly linked to debt bondage because the high input costs, failed crops and delayed or refused payments can force farmers to take out multiple loans. Without access to more formal financial support, the loans are often provided by rogue money lenders. As a result, accruing debt and unaffordable interest rates can lead to debt bondage for farmers’ children. Bonded labor is especially widespread in South Asian countries, including Pakistan and India, but various forms of bonded labor are reported worldwide.^(1-3)

See also: Cash crops, Farmer suicide, Child labor, Migrant workers, Poverty, Human rights.

Cash crops are agricultural food and non-food products grown for profit, typically sold by farmers to another party for export purposes. This distinguishes cash crops from food crops, which are typically used either directly for subsistence by their growers or sold as a staple food supply within the country of production. Cotton is a typical cash crop, whose price is determined by the international commodity markets in relationship to supply and demand indicators. This contributes to income insecurity for farmers and aggravates the precariousness of cotton cultivation.⁽¹⁾

See also: Genetically modified (GM) crops, Farmer suicide, Child labor, Bonded labor.

The International Labour Organization conventions (n˚138 & n˚182) require all states to specify the minimum age for employment. As a rule, this should be no younger than 15 years, with exceptions for some types of lighter work to the age of 12 years in some regions. However, and without exception, children under 18 years should be excluded from hazardous work, forced labor, commercial sexual exploitation, or illicit activities.⁽¹⁾ Yet, it is estimated that out of the 168 million children who mostly work as agricultural laborers, more than half are employed in hazardous work.⁽¹⁾ Production of cash crops, including cotton, relies heavily on child labor. It often includes tasks such as application of and exposure to chemicals, especially pesticides, handling of heavy machinery, and carrying heavy loads. The International Labour Organization’s Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (ILO n˚182) classifies all these activities as hazardous work. In addition, many children working in cotton production are denied an education, receive little or no pay, and work significantly more hours than those set by national legislation. Migrant child laborers are especially vulnerable to exploitation, and practices such as trafficking; bonded labor and serfdom caused by cotton farmers' accruing debt are a sad reality.^(2-4)

See also: Hazardous chemicals, Health hazards, Farmer suicide, Migrant workers, Poverty, Modern slavery, Living wage, Human rights, Offshore manufacture, Supply chain.

Collective bargaining is a process that allows workers (usually represented by trade unions) and employers to negotiate agreements on working conditions, wages, benefits, and other aspects of fair employment. Collective bargaining is underpinned by the fundamental human right to freedom of peaceful assembly and, according to the International Labour Organization, countries with established collective bargaining procedures have more equal wages, fewer protracted disputes, and fairer employment relationships. Despite this, a significant proportion of current fashion production takes place in countries that have been known to either directly or indirectly restrict workers’ right to organize and speak up to improve their often appalling working arrangements. Examples include China, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam and India.^(1-6)

See also: Poverty, Living Wage, Migrant workers, Modern slavery, Offshore manufacture, Supply chain, Transparency, Zero-hour contract.

Clusters are defined as geographic concentrations of producing units, businesses and institutions that are mutually interconnected and often complementary in their offerings, so enabling a good balance between competition and cooperation.⁽¹⁾ Craft clusters are a concept best known in connection with Indian heritage crafts. Here, craft clusters refer to mostly rural concentrations of households that produce handmade products, often drawing on long-standing local crafts traditions.⁽²⁾ The aim of government, NGO and other institutional support of craft clusters through developmental programs is to both preserve the unique character of local heritage craft traditions and to boost employment and economic opportunities in areas that rely on craft production as the main source of income.^(2-4) While heritage crafts products globally face constant competition from cheaper, mass-manufactured items, ensuring their competitiveness on the grounds of cultural value, skilled labor and unique aesthetics that cannot be reproduced by a machine, is vital for promoting diversity and sensitivity to multiple forms of cultural and economic expression.^(5,6)

See also: Artisan, Heritage crafts, Modern slavery, Localism, Inclusion, Respect, Reshoring, Prosperity, Well-being.

Appropriation refers to claiming as one’s own something that belongs to others. Accordingly, cultural appropriation is understood as “unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the practices, customs, or aesthetics of one social or ethnic group by members of another (typically dominant) community or society”.⁽¹⁾ As a result, the term cultural appropriation is mostly used in connection with Western exploitation of non-Western and non-white cultural forms. Although anthropologists and cultural historians emphasize that all cultures contain an element of hybridity, as they are subject to continuous developments and cultural exchange, what distinguishes cultural appropriation from cultural dialogue and mutual exchange is the lack of respect for, and understanding of, cultural context. Cultural appropriation therefore refers to situations when elements of one culture are trivialized and used as an empty spectacle, without sensitivity to their deeper meaning or their relationship to the values and beliefs of the culture they originate from. Instead of embracing diversity and enabling cross-cultural appreciation, cultural appropriation can result in offense and harm, and can lead to alienation. While it is critical that the term is not mis-used for accusations in support of ethnocentric sentiments and individual claims to cultural heritage of communities, there is also an urgent need to address the issue of cultural appropriation within the western fashion system which is filled with examples of inappropriate borrowings that compromise rich cultural traditions for quick commercial gain.^(1-6)

See also: Globalization, Decolonization, Diversity, Inclusion, Respect, Localism.

Endangered species are species of wildlife that are threatened by extinction. The most complete assessment of the state of the world’s biodiversity is captured in the Red List of Threatened Species™, compiled since 1964 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The Red List has assessed 112,400 species to date, out of which 30,000 are considered critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable. Despite the volume of the data, only 5% of the world’s described species have so far been assessed^(1-3) but experts agree that the current rate of biodiversity loss due to human induced global warming, deforestation and climate change has reached an unprecedented scale.^(4,5)

See also: Ecosystem, Irreversibility, Animal welfare

Farmer suicide is a fatal act in which a farmer intentionally takes his/her life. In the context of fashion, the issue of farmer suicide has come to the forefront in connection with cotton farming, especially with the introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops in the cotton growing regions of India. However, disturbing rates of farmer suicide are also affecting other countries, including Australia, China, France, the US, and the UK. Some of the risk factors such as high input costs for seeds and machinery resulting in debt, reliance on irrigation for higher crop yields, and price volatility determined by the commodity markets, are especially pronounced in cash crop farming, including cotton. However, to date, there is a lack of factual evidence to confirm that suicide rates among cotton growers are higher in comparison to other farmers. Farmer suicides have several contributing and interconnected factors, such as social isolation, high levels of stress, financial instability, insufficient state support policies and lack of access to adequate mental health services. Increasingly, changing weather patterns linked to climate change and global warming, such as long-lasting droughts in Australia, also aggravate the situation.^(1-10) In considering and reporting on the issue of suicide, it is essential to recognize that suicide is rarely a result of a single factor.⁽¹⁾

See also: Water use, Water scarcity, Bonded labor, Social costs.

Globalization refers to the economic, cultural, and political interconnectedness of the world and the growing interactions between people, businesses, and political institutions globally. While the term globalization has only been more widely used since the 1980s, the transnational interdependence of trade, politics and cultures has been increasing for centuries, most notably as a result of European colonization. However, the rates accelerated considerably in the 20th century, especially in connection to the progress in transport and communication technologies and the expansion of the capitalist free market economy. This means that ideas, behaviours, and decisions taken in one part of the world are now more than likely to impact communities worldwide. While it could be argued that flows of influence take place in multiple directions, globalization is also associated with the dominance of those with economic advantage and the Westernization of global cultures. In the context of fashion, the globalization of its production and consumption has resulted in a homogenized global fashion identity that decimated the diversity and richness of other forms of fashion expression and suppressed the continuity of local artisan and heritage crafts traditions. Crucially, as the production of fashion goods consumed in the Global North has been largely outsourced to countries of the Global South, the social and environmental costs of fashion overconsumption are now carried by those least responsible for its impacts.^(1-5)

See also: Global inequality, Externalized costs, Offshore manufacture, Decolonization, Interdependence, Cultural appropriation, Localism.

Greenwashing is a corporate marketing strategy that takes advantage of the increased public interest in environmental issues to make false or misleading claims about a company’s environmental practices and products. To create a favourable company image, positive messages are communicated selectively, without the full disclosure of related issues.⁽¹⁾ Common examples may include: advertising recycled or organic cotton products that in fact have only a fraction of recycled or organic content; claims of carbon neutral performance while this is mainly based on carbon offsetting; promotion of ‘conscious’, ‘sustainable’ or ‘green’ lines by companies who do not follow the same standards in the rest of their products; or loud environmental statements by companies whose business models are based on large-scale production and high material throughput, both of which are irreconcilable with planetary boundaries and the climate emergency. The most effective tool in combating greenwashing is education using a shared language on the environmental and social impacts of fashion and deepening public awareness of such issues. Educational institutions as well as fashion journalists and leading fashion media have, therefore, a critical role to play in creating cultures of sustainability.

See also: Trust, Efficiency, Growth, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Climate crisis, United Nations Fashion Industry Charter for Climate Action, Accountability, Corporate social responsibility (CSR), Respect.

Heritage crafts, also known as traditional craftsmanship, refers to artisan skills and products that draw on cultural traditions of regions and communities and are passed down for generations as a part of local cultural heritage. Examples include handloom weaving, hand embroidery or shoe and boot last making. Heritage crafts fall under the protection of the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which recognizes that “the processes of globalization and social transformation, alongside the conditions they create for renewed dialogue among communities, also give rise, as does the phenomenon of intolerance, to grave threats of deterioration, disappearance and destruction of the intangible cultural heritage, in particular owing to a lack of resources for safeguarding such heritage”.⁽⁴⁾ The Heritage Crafts Association (HCA) based in the UK offers one example of advocacy, support and promotion of heritage craft skills. The HCA’s annual Red List of Endangered Crafts maps and assesses the viability of heritage crafts in the UK to both raise awareness and also ensure that their diversity is sustained for future generations. The issues that endanger heritage crafts worldwide include, but are not limited to, aging of master craftspeople, lack of apprenticeship schemes, and market competition from cheaper products.^(1-7)

See also: Globalization, Decolonization, Diversity, Inclusion, Artisan, Craft clusters, Offshore manufacture, Reshoring, Localism, Sufficiency, Trust, Cultural appropriation.

The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) defines human rights as "rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status".⁽¹⁾ Human rights include the right to life, equality before the law, freedom of expression, economic, social, and cultural rights, such as the rights to work, social security and education, and the rights to development and self-determination. They are universal and inalienable, interdependent and indivisible, equal and non-discriminatory. Apart from rights, they also comprise obligations. States have the obligation to respect, protect and fulfil the human rights of their citizens, whereas individuals are obliged to respect the human rights of others. Human rights are protected and enforced by a series of international treaties, of which all states have ratified at least one and 80% of the states have ratified four or more. Some fundamental human rights are protected by universally valid international legislation such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights) of 1948 that emerged as a result of the atrocities of the Second World War.^(1-4) Fashion has a multi-faceted relationship with human rights, regarding employment practices and the narratives of fashion, which either uphold or deny universal rights, equality and equity.

See also: Poverty, Modern slavery, Living wage, Child labor, Collective bargaining, Offshore manufacture, Supply chain, Transparency, Zero-hour contract, Global inequality.

See Poverty.

A living wage is a decent remuneration for labor that enables workers to meet their basic needs, sustain healthy lifestyles, and support their dependants. A living wage is a recognized human right, yet it is denied to most of the estimated 80 million workers in the global fashion industry. There is a logic within supply chains to minimize costs and maximize margins and wages are one of the first pressure points to be squeezed by retailers. Wages often make up only a small proportion of the value of fashion products and campaigners have been lobbying on the grounds that paying a living wage would add little to the retail cost of finished garments but could mean a dramatic change for the better in the lives of garment workers. Most garment workers are women, who are kept in deep poverty despite producing garments for leading fashion brands.^(1-6)

See also: Collective bargaining, Equality, Equity, Global inequality, Modern slavery, Migrant workers, Zero-hour contract.

Migrant workers are workers who leave their country of origin to find employment abroad, often with a hope of improving their economic status. However, they often do not enjoy the same rights as local workers and, without language skills, networks and in many cases without adequate legal documents, they are especially vulnerable to abuse and exploitation, including bonded labor and trafficking. Migrant workers are known to experience discrimination in pay and employment status and have little opportunity to negotiate better conditions. They often lack access to suitable and safe accommodation and can become victims of sexual harassment and exploitation. The constant fear of deportation further increases their vulnerability to all of the above. Migrant labor is widespread across the global fashion supply chains, including migrant child labor (especially in cotton production). Migrant workers are increasingly employed in the garment factories in OECD countries such as the UK, the US and Australia, to achieve quick turnarounds of fast fashion lines closer to target markets while matching the low cost of offshore manufacture.^(1-8)

See also: Modern slavery, Human rights, Living wage, Zero-hour contract, Global inequality, Collective bargaining, Equality, Equity, Respect.

Sometimes called contemporary slavery, modern slavery refers to a situation where a person is exploited and completely controlled by another person or organization, without the ability to leave. Often seen as a by-product of poverty, modern slavery particularly affects communities that are vulnerable due to their challenging economic circumstances, lack of education, societal traditions, and those unprotected by law. Modern slavery includes practices such as forced labor, bonded labor, human trafficking, descent-based slavery, child slavery and child labor, and forced and early marriage. Most of these are widespread across multiple stages of the fashion supply chain. While article Four of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights states that no one should be held in slavery,⁽¹⁾ an estimated 40.3 million people are subject to modern slavery across the world, 1.5 million of these in the developed economies,^(2-7)

See also: Human rights, Equality, Equity, Living Wage, Zero-hour contract, Collective bargaining, Migrant workers, Supply chain.

Offshore manufacture, also called offshoring, refers to the relocation of manufacturing processes overseas, typically as a way of increasing profitability through low labor costs. The shift to offshore manufacture in the fashion industry has been critical in increasing the complexity of its supply chain, which is now linked with a myriad of social and environmental issues. Offshoring removes immediate control over manufacturing, dilutes responsibility for its social and environmental impacts, and leads to long and opaque supply networks that make complete transparency difficult to achieve. Yet, without transparency it is impossible to improve the damaging environmental and social practices in the production of fashion. In addition, offshoring significantly contributes to deskilling and the loss of manufacturing facilities in the countries of the Global North, which makes transition back to local production alternatives nearly impossible.

See also: Reshoring, Localism, Environmental costs, Social costs, Accountability, Corporate social responsibility (CSR), Global inequality, Human rights, Living wage, Poverty, Modern slavery, Water pollution, Health hazards.

Poverty is often defined in absolute and relative terms. Absolute poverty means the inability to provide for basic needs such as food, shelter, and clothing. Relative poverty refers to a person's poor economic status in relation to the overall standards of the society they live in.⁽¹⁾ While "gainful employment" is considered to be the most effective way to break free from poverty, the estimates of the International Labour Organization suggest that 730 million people in emerging and developing economies are earning wages that are not sufficient to keep them and their dependants above the poverty level.⁽²⁾ When these dependants are taken into account, 2 billion people overall are estimated to live in poverty.⁽³⁾ Poverty wages are a widespread practice across the fashion supply chain. According to the Clean Clothes Campaign, most of the 80 million employees of the global garment industry are denied pay that would lift them out of deep poverty.^(5),(1-5)

See also: Living Wage, Human rights, Equality, Equity, Modern slavery, Zero-hour contract, Collective bargaining, Migrant workers.

See Poverty.

Rana Plaza was an eight-story commercial block located just outside Dhaka, Bangladesh, containing five clothing factories amongst other shops. On 24th April, 2013 the building collapsed due to a structural failure, killing 1,134 people and leaving many more with life-long debilitating injuries. The majority of the casualties were low-paid garment workers, who made clothes for global high street brands. Despite the fact that alarming cracks in the building were discovered the day before and the building was temporarily closed as a result of expert advice to discontinue its use, the workers were instructed to return the next morning to meet the deadlines on their orders. Subsequent inquiries have found that Rana Plaza was built on unsuitable ground, it was designed for commercial but not industrial use, and the upper floors were built without a permit. The Rana Plaza collapse is the deadliest known tragedy of its kind. It tragically highlighted the health and safety hazards linked to modern slavery and the day to day isues faced by low-paid garment workers. Rana Plaza is widely referred to as a wake-up call for the fashion industry and it has become a starting point for many major initiatives including the global campaign Fashion Revolution. Rana Plaza’s catastrophic collapse mobilized local authorities and brands, with significant pressure from NGOs such as IndustriALL Global Union and the Clean Clothes Campaign to implement new policies and control schemes. While the disaster brought many ethical trade issues to light, the continuity of the improvement efforts is at risk as many worker organizations and unions in Bangladesh have since reported a backslide in both labour rights and health and safety compliance.(1-5)

See also: Offshore manufacture, Supply chain, Transparency, Traceability, Poverty, Collective bargaining, In-work poverty, Human rights, Social costs.

Reshoring is reversing the practice of offshore manufacture by re-introducing and supporting local manufacturing facilities and skills. The motivations for reshoring vary and range from rising labor costs overseas, shortening lead times, improving flexibility and responsiveness, through to easier control over supply chains that enables close overseeing of quality as well as social and environmental practices. Reshoring also cuts the ecological footprint of products, enables reskilling of the local workforce and stimulates the domestic economy. The trend towards reshoring textile and clothing manufacturing is now emerging across the EU, the US and Australia, but the deeper local and global cultural, social, environmental and economic impacts of such developments over the coming years are yet to be fully assessed.^(1-5)

See also: Accountability, Environmental costs, Social costs, Distribution, Localism.

Social costs are costs incurred as a result of production or other business activities. This includes the impact of such activities on reducing the well-being of individuals and communities. The consideration of social costs is closely linked to the concept of the Triple Bottom Line that extends the focus of traditional accountancy from considering only financial transactions and profit (bottom line) to also accounting for the impacts that business has on people (social bottom line) and the environment (environmental bottom line).⁽¹⁾

See also: Environmental costs, Global inequality, Accountability, Corporate social responsibility (CSR), Offshore manufacture, Supply chain.

Supply chain refers to all the processes, organizations and individuals involved in turning raw materials into finished products and delivering them to customers. The fashion industry has a complex global supply chain that is notoriously difficult to trace. For example, raw materials originate in one country but are likely to be spun into yarn in another, then they will be shipped to be woven into fabric elsewhere and later transported for finishing into yet another location, again different to where the final product will be manufactured. The rapid shift to offshore manufacture since the 1990s means that most of these processes now typically take place away from the geographic location of the commissioning company and its target market, and so finished products are shipped yet again to where they are sold. This practice removes immediate control over manufacturing, dilutes responsibility for its social and environmental impacts, and leads to long and opaque supply chains that make complete transparency difficult to achieve. Yet, without transparency it is impossible to improve the damaging environmental and social practices in the production of fashion.

See also: Transparency, Traceability, Accountability, Value chain, Reshoring, Distribution, Environmental costs, Social costs, Fast fashion, Human rights, Modern slavery.

Traceability refers to the possibility to trace the journey and origins of products from raw material to finished product across the entire value chain. Traceability is closely interconnected with the requirement for transparency, to improve trust in the fashion industry and its social and environmental practices. Some examples of methods adopted to enable traceability include the use of RFID and blockchain technologies to track the flow of materials, components and products through the supply chain. However, while both transparency and traceability are crucial steps in improving the status quo of the industry, such efforts have little value unless they are accompanied by an active commitment to preventing any abuse of either people or the environment. In addition, improvements through effective policies, legislation, and regulations, as well as punishment and legal action against companies that are guilty of unacceptable social and environmental practices, also need to be urgently put in place.^(1-5)

See also: Accountability, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Offshore manufacture, Externalized costs, Respect, Child labor, Human rights, Living wage, Modern slavery, Reshoring.

Transparency is a requirement for companies to take full responsibility for their entire supply chains and act on their accountability for the social and environmental practices at all stages of manufacturing of their products. The fashion industry now relies on complex global supply networks that are notoriously difficult to trace, but as the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster highlighted, monitoring and improving each step that leads to the delivery of final products is a moral obligation. Rana Plaza gave rise to the worldwide movement Fashion Revolution with its Who Made My Clothes campaign, and the annual publication of their Fashion Transparency Index that reviews the world's largest brands and retailers in terms of the volume and character of data they disclose about their human rights and environmental policy practice and impacts. Some examples of methods adopted to achieve transparency include published supplier lists and the use of RFID (Radio-frequency identification) or blockchain technologies to track the movement of materials and products. Yet, while transparency is a crucial first step, it has little value unless it is accompanied by an active commitment to preventing any abuse of either people or the environment. In addition, improvements through effective policies, legislation, and regulations, as well as punishment and legal action against companies that are guilty of unacceptable social and environmental practices, also need to be urgently put in place.^(1-5)

See also: Traceability, Corporate social responsibility (CSR), Respect, Child labor, Human rights, Living wage, Modern slavery, Offshore manufacture, Reshoring.

See Endangered species.

A zero-hour contract is an arrangement between a worker and an employer where the employer has no obligation to guarantee a minimum of working hours and the worker is not obliged to accept the working hours offered. While zero-hour contracts may be suitable in some cases, such as to cover seasonal peaks and to enable students to work over vacation periods, they are generally unsuitable to run a core business, especially in cases where the patterns of work can be reasonably predicted, as for example shop opening hours. The incidences of low-paid zero-hour contracts have been reported across the fashion supply chain, especially in retail. In most cases, rather than offering workers the advantage of flexibility, zero-hour contracts can become a form of modern slavery, where employees work for low pay, with insecure and often last-minute working patterns, which makes them vulnerable to exploitation.

See also: Living wage, Human rights, Poverty, Collective bargaining, Migrant workers.