H&M introduces new strategy on wages at our suppliers’ factories
On November 25, the first ever conference on Living Wage in International Supply Chains takes place in Berlin. Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development are behind the initiative. Helena Helmersson, Global Head of Sustainability at H&M is the key note speaker under the title “Living wage – a shared responsibility”.
During the last year, H&M has worked on new vision and roadmap on how to address wages the best way. The roadmap addresses wages, both short and long term, on several levels from our purchasing practices, supplier practices, workers’ rights to Government responsibility.
It has always been our vision that all textile workers should be able to live on their wage. That is also stated in our Code of Conduct. We believe that the wage development, driven by for example governments in some countries, is taking too long, so we want to take further action and encourage the whole industry to follow. With size comes responsibility and we have the ability to contribute to change.
Our new roadmap is based on our vision that a fair living wage covering workers basic needs should be paid by all our commercial goods suppliers. This should be enabled through H&M’s purchasing practices, and based on a skilled workforce that have their wages negotiated and annually reviewed, involving democratically elected trade unions or worker representatives.
For more information go to www.hm.com/fairlivingwage