07 July 2019 LESSONS Labour rights

Gajimu.com/garmen - Transparency through mobile internet

A busy textile factory with many workers operating sewing machines

Strengthen the transparency of Indonesian garment factories’ compliance with minimum wages and national labor law

Objectives:

  • Letting workers check compliance on minimum wages and labour law (online and face-to-face), and reporting the results to trade unions and to employers, offering support and information to achieve compliance
  • Collecting CBA’s, assess clauses and offer model clauses to improve working conditions to comply with minimum wages and labour law, and further improve beyond legal minimum
  • Publishing factory pages online, summarizing results from compliance checks and current CBAs per factory, enabling more effective monitoring of working conditions by workers, employers, brands, and buyers
Download the full evaluation (pdf - 1.71 mb)

Facts

Partner: Wage Indicator Foundation

Investment: EUR 540,000 (C&A Foundation)

Duration: 2 years (2017-19)

Geographic region: Indonesia

Results

The survey offers a very practical approach to engaging and creating awareness among workers so their voice can be heard, but coordination and communication with local trade unions was not effective.

Factory pages offer a very simple solution for transparency, which has the potential to put psychological pressure on non-compliance factories as well as consumer/image pressure on brands that source from these factories

It's unclear to what extent the initiative has contributed to improvement in the working conditions and CBAs in the factories, because in most cases those surveyed are also subject to BetterWork ILO Programme or large brands audits.

What did we learn?

C&A Foundation

The expected results were overly optimistic and ambitious for a two-year project. A more realist result framework could have contributed qualitatively to the dialogue with WageIndicator Foundation.

The current proposal application format does not stimulate critical reflection on the different stakeholders' (other than the funded partner) needs, motivations, and capacities.

C&A Foundation could stimulate partners' ownership and engagement by requesting applicants and their partners to co-sign the proposal.

For Partners & Others

Creating an enabling space for workers is crucial to influencing the survey's potential for learning and worker mobilisation.

It's crucial to engage partners at different levels right from the beginning to strengthen ownership, engagement, and organisational anchorage.

Investing more in networking and cooperation with other stakeholders in the sector could have contributed to improve coordination and communication with local trade union representatives.