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Levi Strauss has left the Ethical Trading Initiative after refusing to adopt the ‘living wage’ provision of the ETI’s base code.
The clothing manufacturer was suspended from membership in December after the failure of two years of discussions between itself and an ETI disciplinary panel.
Now it has resigned, saying that it cannot responsibly commit to meet the provision because it has insufficient leverage on its suppliers. The company said it did not believe it would be possible to resolve its disagreements with ETI over the matter by the end of this year, when the period of suspension would have ended.
The ETI base code states that wages and benefits paid for a standard working week must meet the national minimum wage or industry benchmark standards, whichever is higher. However, they should additionally ‘always be enough to meet basic needs and to provide some discretionary income’, which is the ETI’s definition of a living wage.
The ETI said members must adopt all the provisions of the code in full and ‘may not pick and choose which elements they wish to implement’. It added: ‘Every member company faces the same difficulty in defining a living wage and in implementing it in different contexts. This has not prevented any other member company from adopting this provision.’
Levi’s departure has coincided with the arrival of the first public body to join the ETI. London Underground has become a member in an attempt to raise standards in its supply chain for staff clothing, much of which is made in the Far East and eastern Europe. It issues about 300,000 items of uniform a year to its 12,000 staff.
The clothing manufacturer was suspended from membership in December after the failure of two years of discussions between itself and an ETI disciplinary panel.
Now it has resigned, saying that it cannot responsibly commit to meet the provision because it has insufficient leverage on its suppliers. The company said it did not believe it would be possible to resolve its disagreements with ETI over the matter by the end of this year, when the period of suspension would have ended.
The ETI base code states that wages and benefits paid for a standard working week must meet the national minimum wage or industry benchmark standards, whichever is higher. However, they should additionally ‘always be enough to meet basic needs and to provide some discretionary income’, which is the ETI’s definition of a living wage.
The ETI said members must adopt all the provisions of the code in full and ‘may not pick and choose which elements they wish to implement’. It added: ‘Every member company faces the same difficulty in defining a living wage and in implementing it in different contexts. This has not prevented any other member company from adopting this provision.’
Levi’s departure has coincided with the arrival of the first public body to join the ETI. London Underground has become a member in an attempt to raise standards in its supply chain for staff clothing, much of which is made in the Far East and eastern Europe. It issues about 300,000 items of uniform a year to its 12,000 staff.
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