Investigating social and labor sustainability performance of fashion production facilities: a case study from developing country

Islam, Mazed, zaman, Md. Shamsuz and Islam, Saniyat (2023) Investigating social and labor sustainability performance of fashion production facilities: a case study from developing country. Journal of Cleaner Production. (Submitted)

Abstract

To achieve the sustainable development goal (SDG), it is necessary to reduce inequalities in facilities social and labor activities and decent workplaces to ensure economic growth. While the number of the published research works on measuring the eco-indices of fashion products and facilities are plenty, no significant work has been presented on measuring the sustainability of social and labor performance. Therefore, this article investigates the social and labor sustainability performance of two fashion factories: a knit factory (Factory A) and a denim factory (Factory B). The Higg Index Facility Social and Labor Module (FSLM) by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) were applied to measure the scores. Three (3) sections in the Facility Module-Social and Labor were considered. Section 1 offers factory performance values out of 391 for (a) recruitment and hiring, (b) compensation, (c) working hours, (d) employee engagement and communication, (e) employee treatment and development, (f) health and pay, and (g) termination and retrenchment. Section 2 offers a performance values score 125 points in the Facility's Labor and Workplace Performance Management for the Value Chain. Section 3 indicates values out of 78 on (a) external participation and cooperation, (b) community effect, and (3) transparency and public disclosure. Based on qualitative short questionnaires, data were generated for each sub-section of FSLM. The result shows high-level to low-level performance scores for both factories covering a diverse aspect. Overall social performance score achieved for both factory cases was 384 (factory A) and 394 (factory B) out of a total of 594. Among these, section 1 provides scores of 264 (factory A) and 275 (factory B); section B provides value score 80 and 79, and section 3 give scores 40 and 40 in both facility cases, respectively. The study reveals technical, managerial, and contextual limitations on social and labor performance in both knit and denim factories. The findings have important theoretical and practical implications and could be extended to other fashion production facilities across the fashion supplier countries. Overall, findings will help fashion stakeholders, especially factory practitioners, brands, retailers, academics, and researchers, to reformulate their strategic approaches and current practices to improve social and labor performances. We suggest factory practitioners, including academics and researchers, focus on how to improve the factory working environment, social issues and other disparities in order to drive the fashion industry to be more sustainable across the multi-tier supply chain.

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