Activities of Judith SARGENTINI related to 2016/2140(INI)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT on the EU flagship initiative on the garment sector PDF (417 KB) DOC (97 KB)
Amendments (30)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 3 b (new)
Citation 3 b (new)
- having regard to the fundamental Conventions of the International Labour Organisation on child labour, forced labour, discrimination and freedom of association and collective bargaining,
Amendment 2 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 3 a (new)
Citation 3 a (new)
- having regard to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,
Amendment 9 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 4 a (new)
Citation 4 a (new)
- having regard to the Sustainability Compact for Continuous Improvements in Labour Rights and Factory Safety in the Ready-Made Garment and Knitwear Industry in Bangladesh,
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 4 b (new)
Citation 4 b (new)
- having regard to the 2013 Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh,
Amendment 18 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 a (new)
Citation 10 a (new)
- having regard to the "Vision Zero Fund", initiated in 2015 by the G7 in cooperation with the ILO to foster occupational safety and health in production countries,
Amendment 27 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
A a. whereas victims of the three most deadly incidents in the garment sectors (Rana Plaza, Tazreen and Ali Enterprises) have or are in the process to receive compensation for the loss of income; whereas this is in line with ILO Convention 121 and is the result of unprecedented cooperation between brand, trade unions, civil society, governments and the ILO; whereas given the widespread violation of key human rights, actual remedy remains rare;
Amendment 28 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
A b. whereas victims of human rights abuses involving European companies face multiple obstacles to access judicial remedies; including procedural obstacles on admissibility and disclosure of evidence, often prohibitive litigation costs, absence of clear liability standards for corporate involvement in human rights abuses, and lack of clarity on the application of EU rules of private international law in transnational civil litigation;
Amendment 30 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
B a. whereas the ILO Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work commits Member States to respect and promote principles and rights in four categories, regardless of whether they have ratified the relevant Conventions, namely, freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining; the elimination of discrimination in respect of employment and occupation; the elimination of forced or compulsory labour and the abolition of child labour;
Amendment 32 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
B b. whereas the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights apply to all States and to all business enterprises, both transnational and others, regardless of their size, location, ownership and structure;
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas collective bargaining is one means of ensuring that wage and productivity growth go hand in hand, but whereas the use in the global supply chain of non-standard forms of employment, including subcontracting and informal work, has weaken collective agreements; whereas many workers in the garment sector do not earn a living wage;
Amendment 44 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas most human rights violations in the garment sector are labour- rights related and include the denial of workers fundamental right to join or form a union of their choosing and bargain collectively in good faith; whereas this has led to widespread labour rights violations ranging from poverty wages, wage theft, unsafe workplaces, and sexual harassment, to precarious work; whereas these decent work deficits are particularly acute in export processing zones (EPZs) linked to global supply chains, which are often characterized by exemptions from labour laws and taxes, and restrictions on trade union activities and collective bargaining;
Amendment 49 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E
Recital E
E. whereas initiatives led by the private sector, such as codes of conduct, labels, self-assessments and social audits, have not proven to be at all effective over the last 20 years in terms of increasing workers’ rights' rights, safeguarding human rights and improving sustainability in the garment supply chain;
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
E a. whereas multistakeholder initiatives like the German Partnership for Sustainable Textiles or the Dutch Agreement on Sustainable Garment and Textile are bringing stakeholders like the industry, the trade unions, the government and the NGOs at one table; whereas the standards elaborated by the initiatives also reach out to environmental issues; whereas those initiatives have not yet entered the implementation phase, so concrete results are still outstanding; whereas such national initiatives are necessary due to a lack of an EU legislative initiative; whereas there is still a majority of Member States that don't have any initiative;
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
E a. whereas efforts of corporations to promote workplace compliance can support, but not replace, the effectiveness and efficiency of public governance systems, namely State's duty to promote compliance and enforce national labour laws and regulations, including labour administration and inspection functions, dispute resolution and prosecution of violators, and to ratify and implement international labour standards;
Amendment 66 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital H a (new)
Recital H a (new)
H a. whereas in December 2016 many trade union activists have been arrested in Bangladesh followed by a protest for a living wage and better working conditions, whereas several hundreds of garment workers have been fired following the protests; whereas the right of association is still not respected in the producing countries;
Amendment 73 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I a (new)
Recital I a (new)
I a. whereas there are many migrants and refugees working in the garment sector as they are a source of cheap, unregistered and extremely vulnerable labour; whereas they are particularly vulnerable to labour exploitation;
Amendment 79 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J a (new)
Recital J a (new)
J a. whereas trade agreements are an important tool to promote decent work in global supply chains in combination with social dialogue and firm-level monitoring;
Amendment 91 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Stresses that EU trade and investment policies are interlinked with social protection, development, human rights and environmental policies; reiterates its call on the Commission and the Member States to guarantee policy coherence for development on business and human rights at all levels, in particular in relation to the Union’'s trade and investment policy, which implies i.e. to improve the effectiveness of social conditionality in bilateral and regional agreements through a greater involvement and consultation of social partners and civil society in the negotiations and implementation of labour provisions and a systematic use of comprehensive ex ante and ex post "trade sustainability impact assessments";
Amendment 108 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Commission to present a legislative proposal on binding due diligence obligations for supply chains in the garment sector as soon as possible, aligned with the new OECD guidelines and internationally agreed standards on human rights and social and environmental standards; this proposal should focus on the core problems garment workers facon due diligence in the garment and foot- wear sector, the OECD guidelines for multinational companies, that are importing into the European Union, the ILO resolution on decent work in supply chains and internationally agreed standards on human rights and social and environmental standards; emphasises, that the new OECD guidelines should be the leading principle in the legislative proposal; stresses, that this legislative proposal should include core standards like (occupational health and safety, a living wage, freedom of association, and freedom of collective bargaining, prevention of sexual harassment and violence) and shouldt the workplace, eliminating forced and child labour; calls on the commission to further address the following matters: key criteria for sustainable production, transparency and traceability, including collection and transparent of data and tools for consumer information, due diligence checks and auditing, access to remedy;, gender equality, supply-chain due diligence reporting; awareness raising; notes, however, with concern that a lot more needs to be done and urges the Commission to take further actions which have a direct impact on workers’ lives in the European Union; encourages the Commission to acknowledge other national legislative proposals and initiatives with the same goal as the legislation, once they have been audited and have met the requirements of the European legislation;
Amendment 129 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Encourages the EU and its Member States to promote, through policy dialogue and capacity building, the take-up and effective enforcement of international labour standards and human rights by partner countries based on ILO Conventions and recommendations; stresses in this context that respecting the right to join and form a union and engage in collective bargaining is a key criterion for business accountability; on this line, calls on the EU to commit governments of developing countries to upgrade the role of labour unions and to actively promote social dialogue and fundamental principles and rights at work, including freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining for all workers, regardless of their employment status;
Amendment 130 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6 a. Acknowledges that, while the responsibility of enforcing labour laws remain with the State, developing countries may have limited capacity and resources to effectively monitor an enforce compliance with law and regulations; to close the governance gap, calls on the EU, in the remit of its development cooperation programmes, to strengthen capacity building and to provide governments of developing countries with technical assistance on labour administration and inspection systems, including in subcontracting factories, and access to appropriate and effective remedy and complaint mechanism, including in EPZs, where long working hours, forced overtime and pay discrimination are common practise;
Amendment 149 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Emphasises the need to enhance codes of conduct, labels and fair trade schemes, and of ensuring alignment with international standards such as the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the upcoming OECD due diligence guidance for the garment and footwear sectorUN Global Compact, ILO Tripartite Declaration of Principles concerning Multinational Entreprises and Social Policy (MNE Declaration), the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the upcoming OECD due diligence guidance for the garment and footwear sector; stresses equally the need to scale-up cross-border social dialogue through the conclusion of International framework agreements (IFAs) to promote workers' rights in the supply chains of MNEs;
Amendment 155 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10 a (new)
Paragraph 10 a (new)
10 a. Recalls that the inclusion of social provisions in public procurement processes can have a strong effect on workers' rights and working conditions along global supply chains; regrets however, that according to ILO studies[1], most social provisions limit the responsibilities to the first-tier contractor, while subcontracting and outsourcing provisions are included in public procurement contracts on an ad hoc basis; calls on the EU to provide assistance to developing countries to enable public procurement policy to be a tool to promote fundamental principles and rights at work; [1] Report IV of ILO, 105th Session, 2016 (p. 45)
Amendment 165 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Believes that it is crucial to ensure increased access to information on the conduct of enterprises; considers it fundamental to introduce a mandatory reporting system and due diligence for EU companies that outsource their production to third countries; believes that responsibility should extend throughout the entire supply chain, including sub- contractors in the formal and informal economy, including in Export processing zones, and commends existing efforts to this effect; believes, however, that the EU is best placed to develop a common framework through legislation on mandatory transnational, remedy for victims, due diligence and supply chain transparency and traceability;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Stresses the need for comprehensive data on corporate sustainability performance; in this context, the elaboration of common definitions and standards for the collection, comparison and assessment of statistical data notably on imports, and welcomes the holistic approach of the Higg Index in measuring enterprises’' environmental, social and labour impacts; urges to continue improvements and transparency of the Higg Index;
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 a (new)
Paragraph 12 a (new)
12 a. Recalls that taxation is an important tool for the promotion of decent work; deems, with a view to ensuring that all companies, including multinationals, pay taxes to the governments of countries where economic activity occurs and value is created, that tax incentives such as tax exemptions in EPZs should be reconsidered alongside exemptions from national labour law and regulations;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12 b (new)
Paragraph 12 b (new)
12 b. Calls on development finance institutions to strengthen labour conditionalities in their performance standards as a contractual condition of financing;
Amendment 177 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13 a. Notes that the "hot spots" countries covered by the flagship initiative have preferential access to the EU market; calls on the EU to ensure that human rights conditions linked to unilateral trade preferences such as GSP or GSP+ are effectively implemented and monitored; to this end, urges the Commission to give more weight to ILO reports and its supervisory bodies findings in its monitoring and evaluation activities and to better liaise with local agencies of ILO and the United Nations in the beneficiary country to fully take into account their views and their experience;
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14 a. Welcomes the legally binding Bangladesh Accord as it includes trade unions and includes remediation of inspected factories; calls to extend its deadline and encourages its replication in other high-risk countries;
Amendment 186 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 b (new)
Paragraph 14 b (new)
14 b. Invites the European Commission to undertake a thorough examination, in consultation with civil society, of existing barriers to justice in cases brought before Member State courts for alleged abuses to human rights committed by EU enterprises or within their supply chain in Third countries. This assessment should be geared towards identifying and promoting the adoption of effective measures that remove or alleviate these barriers;