Levi Strauss has left the Ethical Trading Initiative after refusing to adopt the ‘living wage’ provision of the ETI’s base code.
The clothing manufacturer was suspended from membership in December
after the failure of two years of discussions between itself and an ETI
disciplinary panel.
Now it has resigned, saying that it cannot responsibly commit to meet
the provision because it has insufficient leverage on its suppliers.
The company said it did not believe it would be possible to resolve its
disagreements with ETI over the matter by the end of this year, when
the period of suspension would have ended.
The ETI base code states that wages and benefits paid for a standard
working week must meet the national minimum wage or industry benchmark
standards, whichever is higher. However, they should additionally
‘always be enough to meet basic needs and to provide some discretionary
income’, which is the ETI’s definition of a living wage.
The ETI said members must adopt all the provisions of the code in full
and ‘may not pick and choose which elements they wish to implement’. It
added: ‘Every member company faces the same difficulty in defining a
living wage and in implementing it in different contexts. This has not
prevented any other member company from adopting this provision.’
Levi’s departure has coincided with the arrival of the first public
body to join the ETI. London Underground has become a member in an
attempt to raise standards in its supply chain for staff clothing, much
of which is made in the Far East and eastern Europe. It issues about
300,000 items of uniform a year to its 12,000 staff.
