Sweatshop rules relaxed as suppliers fall short

San Francisco has had to water down a local anti-sweatshop procurement law because no company has been able to comply with its provisions.

The Sweatfree Contracting Ordinance had been seen as landmark legislation in the US, where campaign groups had expected it to act as a template for local authorities wishing to source from ethical suppliers. Yet since it was introduced three years ago the City and County of San Francisco has failed to find any supplier that will comply with it – and legislators have now passed amendments that considerably relax its provisions.

The ordinance, agreed unanimously by the city’s board of supervisors in 2005, required procurement officials to make sure that any clothing bought by the authority, such as uniforms, was manufactured under fair and humane working conditions, having regard to the laws of the source country.

However, the city soon had to grant waivers on contracts because no business felt able to comply. Many companies did not want to declare themselves in compliance because this would risk a legal challenge if one of their subcontractors was found to be treating workers unfairly. In all, seven waivers were granted on contracts together worth $1.35million (£684,000).

The new-look ordinance, applying to contracts worth more than $25,000 and lasting longer than three months, now allows the city to contract with whichever company meets most of the requirements in areas such as wage levels, overtime, safe working conditions, non-discrimination and child or forced labour. A ban on compulsory overtime among suppliers has also been relaxed, and contractors are not now held responsible for the conduct of subcontractors doing work with a value below $20,000. In addition, the ordinance is now subject to quarterly review and considered a ‘work in progress’, making further relaxation possible.

City officials conceded that the regulation had been too demanding. Zach Tuller, legislative assistant to San Francisco supervisor Tom Ammiano, who introduced some of the amendments, told EP: ‘We unfortunately overshot with our first draft and we ended up not being able to procure from any contractor. The amended ordinance aims to reward partial and increased compliance.’

Wade Crowfoot, the mayor’s government relations director, said San Francisco had wanted to introduce ‘the strongest standards against sweatshops in the country’, but conceded that it now had ‘to deal with reality’. He added: ‘We need to ensure the legislation actually works to have an impact on the marketplace.’

The changes have been criticized by some anti-sweatshop campaigners, including former California state senator Tom Hayden, a member of the city’s procurement advisory group. He said the amendments were ‘a backdoor way for undermining the standards in the ordinance’.

The amended regulation has already been applied to six new contracts worth about $2.5m a year, including those for prison clothing, police uniforms and firefighter gear.