FASHION REVOLUTION | FASHION TRANSPARENCY INDEX BRAZIL 2019
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3. TRACEABILITY IMPLICATIONS In our methodology, we have also included additional indicators, extending beyond those proposed by the Transparency Pledge, including gender breakdown, the percentage of migrant workers at each facility, specifically in the Brazilian questionnaire, we have also included a question on the ethnicity breakdown within facilities as this is an important issues for Brazilian brands to monitor. Only 2 brands (7%) had lists that included whether the factories at tier-one had any link with a trade union or any kind of independent worker committee; 3 brands (10%) disclosed the gender breakdown; 2 brands (7%) published the ethnicity breakdown, and only one brand disclosed the percentage of migrant workers in each facility.
We would like to highlight some changes have been made to the 2019 methodology and questionnaire, as this could have had a minor impact on the scores for this section compared to 2018. For example, in 2018 the supplier lists were accepted in any format (PDF, Word, Excel, CSV etc.). This year we gave points only to the brands publishing their supplier lists in a computer readable file, Excel or CSV. Why? Because this enables their lists to be easily utilised by open source tools such as the Open Apparel Registry or the Clean Clothes Campaign – Wikirate factory search widget. Platforms like these are very useful for other stakeholders to make efficient use of brands supplier lists but they require data that can be easily and quickly compared and used.
The analysis this year showed that five brands (17%) made their list of tier-one suppliers available in Excel or CSV format. Only four brands (13%) publish spreadsheets in this format with data about their tiertwo processing units, as with their suppliers of raw materials. We looked to see if brands provided data about their suppliers because this type of transparency and information can help brands engage and collaborate with trade unions and other civil society organisations on labour and human rights issues. The disclosure of supplier lists may facilitate direct conversation between local organisations and brands when problems involving workers’ rights arise that a standard audit may not have identified. Therefore, transparency may really
help to strengthen the efforts of due diligence of a company, and help to reveal issues such as unauthorised subcontracting operations.