MADE recognizes the essential role that factories play in ensuring decent labour conditions and adherence to international standards. It will continue to engage with MGMA and foreign garment associations active in Myanmar with the aim of improving industry standards and practices.
FAQ
11. How does MADE engage with the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA) and foreign garment associations in Myanmar?
12. How many factories can participate in MADE?
It is expected that a minimum of 50 factories per year will participate in MADE’s on-site advisory modules, which require substantial engagement, involving corrective action plans, on-site training, follow-up assessments and other support. Up to 200 factories per year might join off-site workshops and seminars. The project will seek to expand programmes to cover more than this if and when a critical mass of retailers have formally joined the project.
As of early 2023, the MADE project has 18 full-time, experienced trainers, engineers and factory assessors, many of whom have a decade of experience advising factories in the garment industry. The project also works with several part-time trainers and consultants. Implementing partners sequa and EuroCham also have several other staff who support the project but are not full-time dedicated for project activities. While there is already a strong team, further expansion will likely be needed.
Managers and workers from approx. 70 factories have already participated in MADE factory assessment and/or training programmes during the first quarter of 2023. In previous years, SMART worked with approximately 400 factories in various programmes between 2013 and 2022.
Last updated May 10th, 2023.
The views expressed in this publication are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union or any other donors.
13. What is the ‘Alliance’?
The ‘Alliance’ is a new element of the MADE programme which is intended to promote cooperation and joint commitments by the project and participating private sector companies. These address: heightened human rights due diligence; communication and transparency; industry-level and bipartite cooperation and collective action including on issues such as wages and take-home pay, grievance handling, freedom of association and environmental performance.
14. Can non-European companies join the Alliance?
Yes, provided they make the same commitments and financial contribution.
15. What happens if retailers who join the Alliance do not meet the commitments they have made?
Where a Member Company fails to live up to their commitments, they will be suspended from the Alliance through a process overseen by the MADE Steering Commitee. The process and timeline for suspension will depend on how serious and/or persistent the failings are.
16. How does MADE work with other initiatives (e.g. Fairwear Foundation, Ethical Trading Initiative)?
MADE and partners will engage with all organisations with an interest in the Myanmar apparel sector. It will also make use of previous experience and guidelines from other initiatives such as FWF, ETI and Clean Clothes Campaign.
17. Why are exports from Myanmar increasing?
Apparel exports from Myanmar in 2022 were estimated at approximately USD 9.3 billion. While this is the highest level to date, cumulative sector exports would have been expected to have reached over USD 14 billion by 2022, based on prior growth trends, and the total stock of existing manufacturing investments. The disruption caused by the pandemic and political crisis has therefore significantly reduced the expected growth of the sector, by around 35%.
What growth has taken place in 2022 appears to be due to significant latent industrial capacity which was started pre-pandemic. During 2019 and 2020 alone, 220 new apparel manufacturers registered investments with the Directorate of Investment and Companies Administration in Myanmar. These ranged from small to very large factories, the majority of which had planned to employ a thousand or more workers at full capacity. It takes several years to bring a large manufacturing enterprise into full operation. The increase in exports seen in 2022 is therefore likely to be due to some of these pre-2021 investment decisions coming on-stream.
Whether or not the growth of the sector continues, MADE intends to support existing and new brands and their suppliers to undertake heightened human rights due diligence and establish effective HR management and workplace relations, and improve social and environmental performance, including decent wages.
18. Does MADE contradict those calling for withdrawal of all foreign investment from Myanmar?
Yes. The EU and MADE partners believe that the interests of workers in Myanmar are best served by ongoing sourcing from Myanmar, provided that this is pursued responsibly and creates decent jobs. The objective of MADE is to support the hundreds of thousands of factory workers who would be left unemployed by a major withdrawal of investment in the sector, and the family members they support. Roughly 380,000 jobs across Myanmar’s apparel sector are directly reliant on EU trade and would be at acute risk if European trade and buyer engagement in the sector reduces.
19. How will MADE promote freedom of association?
The MADE project team, and members of the Alliance, are committed to supporting freedom of association, consistent with international labour conventions and with the Guidelines on Freedom of Association in Myanmar (‘FoA Guideline') negotiated in 2019 under the ACT on Living Wages programme.
Member Companies which join the Alliance must also make a commitment to communicate to suppliers and other business partners that they expect compliance with the FoA Guidelines.
The MADE project will support the implementation of these Guidelines through training in its factory programmes. Furthermore, under the SMART Factories Programme, the right of factory workers to freely associate is monitored and supported.
Freedom of association will be an ongoing topic for MADE’s Forum on Supply Chain Conduct. Actions could include making collective statements in support of FoA principles and labour rights defenders.
20. Does MADE promote Workplace Coordination Committees, as a replacement for trade unions?
No. The MADE programme supports the implementation of the Freedom of Association Guidelines, and international FoA standards. MADE believes that strong and well-functioning trade unions are an essential part of a responsible apparel sector in Myanmar, including at the level of federations.
As part of its training programme on compliance with Myanmar laws, MADE, through its SMART Factories Programme, trains factories and workers on the Myanmar legal obligation for all companies to establish Workplace Coordination Committees (WCCs). This obligation has been in place since 2012. According to the Settlement of Labour Disputes Law, factories with trade unions are required to have trade union representatives sit on the WCC to represent workers. In the absence of a trade union, management are called upon to organize an election among the workforce to select worker representatives.
However, MADE does not believe that Workplace Coordination Committees (WCCs) are a replacement for trade unions. This is why its training seeks to empower workers to be aware of their rights to participate in trade unions and/or Workplace Coordination Committees (WCCs). Workshop training materials used by MADE for teaching on FoA and strengthening WCCs were originally developed by the International Labor Organization (ILO) for use in Myanmar. This includes the toolkit “Improving industrial relations through effective workplace cooperation: A toolkit for WCC members.”
In principle, WCCs can be a useful and necessary mechanism for factories to receive and remediate many worker grievances at factory level, and receive employee suggestions for enterprise improvements. However, MADE recognizes that in reality, many WCCs operate under the influence of the employer, if at all. There are multiple reasons for this which need to be addressed, including by buyers. This will be a topic for MADE’s Forum on Supply Chain Conduct.
When the SMART Factories Programme reviews factories’ policies and systems for workplace communications and social dialogue, including WCCs it examines:
- If there is an established trade union in the factory and whether they have their legally entitled seats on the WCC;
- If worker representatives on WCCs been elected on a regular basis, normally once per 2 years.
- If the factory has an effective policy for ensuring workers regularly elect their own WCC representatives.
- WCC meetings are conducted using an effective approach and structure. Meeting minutes are kept and shared.
- Ideally, the WCC jointly reviews suggestions received in the company suggestion box.
- Worker representatives on the WCC are empowered to discuss grievances without intimidation or fear of reprisal from factory management.
- The WCC receives feedback or reports from factory management on other systems the company uses for receiving worker grievances, such as smartphone apps or drop-ins to the HR department.
