H&M hosts conference in Myanmar to lead the industry towards a more sustainable fashion future
On December 8 H&M invited stakeholders to a conference on Fair and Equal in Yangon, Myanmar. The forum raised and discussed fashion industry-wide challenges, like how to provide fair jobs, protect human rights or strengthen freedom of association along the value chain.
More than one hundred professionals from the fashion industry – including academia, NGO and trade unions representatives, together with other brands, and suppliers – attended H&M’s Fair and Equal conference in Yangon. Key note speeches from ILO’s Development Partner Relations Coordinator Peter Rademaker, Impactt’s Founder and Director Rosey Hurst and H&M Group’s Head of Sustainability Anna Gedda, were followed by a panel discussion and several break-out sessions about relevant social topics such as fair living wages.
The panel discussion, moderated by BBC journalist Yalda Hakim, brought up the issue of improved social dialogue as a transformational agent for change in the value chain. Participating experts highlighted all the achievements done over the past years when it comes to trade unions engagement, democratically elected workers’ representatives and collective bargaining processes, but also mentioned that further systemic change is still needed for a more sustainable fashion future.
“We are happy to see H&M, as an actor from the private sector, to take a lead in bringing all the relevant actors together to get closer to making functional industrial relations and collective bargaining a reality in the fashion supply chain”
said Peter Rademaker, ILO’s Development Partner Relations Coordinator
The Fair and Equal conference was organised by H&M with the aim to create a platform to further discuss challenges, share best practices and jointly find solutions. The focus was particularly on how to promote well-functioning industrial relations as key to achieve fair living wages, human rights protection and good working conditions along the value chain.
For more information about H&M’s extensive sustainability work, please read hm.com/sustainability