ACT on Living Wages

Civil society, media, academia, think tanks, consultants

Bangladesh

ACT is an agreement between 19 global brands and IndustriALL Global Union in pursuit of living wages for workers in textile and garment supply chains. ACT believes that collective bargaining at industry level, enabled by freedom of association and responsible purchasing practices, is the most realistic pathway to making an impact on wages. 

Collective bargaining at industry level is the process by which a binding agreement can be reached that covers workers and employers across an industry on a range of issues, including the payment of a living wage. While achieving living wages through collective bargaining is feasible, it is also ambitious, requiring nothing short of a transformative approach to the way that the industry operates and what it prioritises. 

ACT’s global footprint can be mapped against a series of strategic building blocks designed to create the conditions necessary to successfully support the negotiation of collective bargaining agreements and secure living wages. These steps, pursued simultaneously by ACT members in priority garment producing countries, are prerequisites for creating the type of industry that can pay living wages.

ACT Building Blocks

• Supply Chain Social Dialogue is ACT’s core operating principle and ensures that all industry actors – trade unions, manufacturers and global brands – are involved as equal parties in identifying challenges and finding joint solutions.
• Responsible Brand Purchasing Practices ensure that wages and benefits can be paid and that any wage rise agreed in a collective bargaining agreement is feasible for manufacturers
• Freedom of Association provides workers with the necessary voice and representation to negotiate with employers on terms and conditions of work, including wages.

These steps, pursued simultaneously by ACT members in priority garment producing countries, are prerequisites for creating the type of industry that can pay living wages.

Accountability and Monitoring

Transforming the global garment industry will require more than bold commitments. The ACT Accountability and Monitoring Framework provides crucial transparency and accountability to this end. 

• Read the ACT Accountability and Monitoring Report 2021 – an unprecedented look into the implementation of the purchasing practices commitments made by ACT member brands. The report interrogates findings from key monitoring tools used by ACT to track the implementation of the ACT Purchasing Practices Commitments. 
• Read the ACT Purchasing Practices Survey Report 2021 which presents the findings of the brand survey (Purchasing Practices Self-Assessment – PPSA), in which employees from each ACT member brand were asked to assess the purchasing practices of their organisation, and the supplier survey (Purchasing Practices Assessment of Brands by Suppliers – PPA), in which manufacturers were asked to assess the purchasing practices of the individual brands they supply product to.