Photo courtesy of Continental Clothing, showing one of the workforce in Tirupur, India
Continental Clothing Co has launched Fair Share, a new range of T-shirts and hooded sweatshirts that carry a ring-fenced price premium that is passed directly to the garment workers in India to enhance their monthly wages. T-shirts will carry a price premium of 10p per tee while each hoody will have a price premium of 54p.
The company has collaborated with the Fair Fashion Network and BSD Consulting to create a scheme that aims to deliver a living wage for the garment decorators at its factory in India. The living wage has been calculated to ensure that a garment worker should, in a working week of no more than 48 hours, earn enough to buy food for herself and her family, pay the rent and pay for healthcare, transportation and education, while still having a small amount of savings left over.
According to the company, the project currently only accounts for around 10% of the factory’s production capacity so all the workers receive an extra 650 rupees. “This is not a living wage yet, but if the project is received well in the marketplace and extended as planned, every worker will get at least the living wage.”
All the products labelled Fair Share are manufactured under the Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) from 100% Indian organic cotton certified by Fairtrade.
