local and international regulations on fair working in the garment manufacturing sector
FAIR WORKING
IN FASHION MANUFACTURING
Our fair working conditions for fashion manufacturing within our company are based on local and international regulations. Local regulations from the Indonesian government and regulations of the International Labor Organization (ILO).
Fair conditions for fashion contain the following subjects:
- Employment relationship
- Non-discrimination
- No child labor
- No forced labor
- Abuse / Harassment
- Living wage
- Health, safety and environment
- Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining
Kampoeng Confectie fair working in fashion focuses on:
Kampoeng Confectie works both with people from the kampoeng in Yogyakarta and with fair working manufacturing locations.
Empowering people
Our goal is to support the local community and empower (mainly) women in the kampoeng. We do this through a supportive home-based industry AND other fair working production locations.
Our main requirement for the work area is that the machine is placed in a separate room, where they have either a fan or air-conditioning and preferably a window.
The separate room ensures our sewers can work without distractions and kids cannot play with the machines. Having a separate room where the woman works, helps for keeping control on our company regulations for health and safety.
If the seamstress is not working for Kampoeng Confectie directly, the owner of the production location guarantees the same working regulations as Kampoeng Confectie. This is something Kampoeng Confectie checks up on for all our production locations.
In Indonesia, home-based industries as Kampoeng Confectie are allowed to empower the (poor) population. Regulations for buildings consider a functional building in balance with its environment, technical reliability in terms of safety, health, comfort and convenience and a legal certainty execution of the building.
Living wage
As Kampoeng Confectie seamstresses work from the kampoeng in (mainly) Yogyakarta, the minimum monthly wage is that of the Special Region of Yogyakarta. Amounting to the minimum monthly wage of 1,850,000 IDR for 2020. This equals about 130 USD or 110 EUR per month, based on a 40-hour work week (currency August 25, 2020).
Minimum monthly wage in Indonesia is decided upon by both provincial and district authorities, according to Indonesian Government Regulation (PP) No. 78/2015. The income disparity within Indonesia is large and the minimum monthly wage differs per province and district.
We decided to pay a living wage which is 1.4 times more than the minimum monthly wage as specified by the government. This is also what we guarantee for our manufacturing partners.
Defining Living Wage
Living wage is the amount of pay considered sufficient for a person and their family to cover basic costs of living in a specific location. Basic costs of living are including food, housing, education, health care, schooling, travel costs and for example also saving.
For calculating the living wage at Kampoeng Confectie, we considered the WageIndicator Foundation and talked to our seamstresses about their basic costs of living. These conversations opened up an honest and inspiring connection between us and our seamstresses, about their needs and the worth of their work.
The WageIndicator Foundation states (September 2019) that a standard family in Indonesia (2 adults, 2 children) should have enough money if they earn 2,300,000 IDR. The wages of a skilled worker differ from 2,400,000 IDR up to 3,600,000 IDR. These numbers and the conversations with our seamstresses in Yogyakarta, showed us the minimum monthly wage of the Indonesian government is not equal to a living wage. This is the reason we decided to give our employees a minimum of 2,500,000 IDR a month, or 1.4 times the minimum monthly wage.
Our living wage is based on a 40-hour work week for a family consisting of 2 adults and 2 children. The amount translates to approximately 175 USD or 155 euro per month (currency March 6, 2020).
Fair system
We don’t think it is fair that the wages of a low-skilled and a high-skilled worker are the same. We are developing a system from junior to senior positions, through dialogue.
The piece production rate of our seamstresses calculates back to above mentioned living monthly wage for every project.
We ensure this by having a written and signed piecework agreement with all our sewers. All our seamstresses can read ans we discuss this agreement with them when they start working for us. This allows them to ask all the questions they have.
As production time differs per product, our seamstresses get a specified price per product/project. We are using an empirical approach as explained by HomeWorkers Worldwide.
We work project-based with our seamstresses because we do not have enough assignments to give all sewers a stable job as of now.
fair working in garment manufacturing
OUR
FAIR WORKING POLICY
IN THE
FASHION INDUSTRY
Our fair working policy for fashion manufacturing is simple and clear.
Read it down below.
Click on a subject to read more.
We respect our sewers and are working towards offering them all a full-time contract-based employment.
We do not discriminate our employees or customers based on gender, race, religion, age, disability, sexual orientation, nationality, political opinion, social group or ethnic origin. We have clothing regulations according to safe working conditions.
According to international regulations child labor ends at the age of 15, or later if local regulations stipulate so. According to the Indonesian government every child should go to school for 12 years. Since schools are starting at the age of six, it means the legal age of employing people is after age 18 – or simply after finishing senior high school (SMA). Therefore, the minimum age of our workers is 18 years old. We did not set the limit on ‘finishing high school’, because less than 1/3 of the Indonesian population finishes secondary education.
No one is forced to work with us, we focus on a safe and healthy work environment and encourage our sewers to tell us when they do not support working on a certain project. We have a normal 40-hour work-week, offer a living wage and all needed equipment is free for our employees to use (also during our free in-company training).
Our employees are treated with respect and dignity. Physical, sexual, psychological or verbal harassment or abuse are not tolerated in our business. We actively create a trusted and safe environment where we can talk about this kind of border-crossing behavior.
A regular workweek consists of 40 hours a week, divided by either five or six days according to personal preference. In Indonesia, and especially the poorer part of the population, it is normal to have up to three jobs to make sure a person can make a living. We pay a living wage to ensure working overtime, or taking a second or third job, is not necessary. Overtime is paid, but we do not encourage it and make sure work is equally distributed over the different sewers. If the sewers nevertheless wish to work overtime, they have to discuss that with us.
We accept and recognize the right of our employees to have freedom to become a member of a trade or labor union: they have freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Providing a safe and healthy workplace setting to prevent accidents and injury to health arising out of, linked with, or occurring in the course of work or as a result of the operation of the employers’ facilities is something we find logical. At Kampoeng Confectie we have set minimum standards for the workplace of our home-based industry, and will be looking for a stable location to work from later [2021].
Fabric
We make sure none of the fabrics or yarn we use are toxic, and maintain an OEKO-TEX® Standard 100. We preferably work with biodegradable and, where possible, organic fabrics. We limit the amount of plastics used and use either FSC or Indonesian legal wood certified paper. Additionally, we use our ‘left over fabrics’ creatively for different projects.
We actively work on these aspects with all garment manufacturing locations we work with. To ensure this, we have regular conversations and are developing a Code of Conduct for every location to sign.
If a manufacturing location can not meet these requirements for our projects,
we need to know why. Next to why, we engage in the conversation how to change this.
Do you still have questions about our fair working policy?