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Searching for institutions: upgrading, private compliance, and due diligence in European apparel value chains

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  • Nikolaus Hammer

Abstract

This article argues that key avenues to improve working conditions – value chain integration, on the one hand, and lead firms’ compliance processes, on the other – have not resulted in improvements in the European apparel industry. Evidence is drawn from economic and social up-/downgrading trajectories in major apparel producing countries as well as a case study on social audits and labour market enforcement in the United Kingdom. Both suggest that institutions to prevent labour exploitation in supply chains have largely been ineffective. Institutional experimentation, which has been hybrid in combining hard and soft law as well as public and private governance elements, underlined the role of lead firms but continued to exclude civil society actors. It is argued that human rights due diligence, at the heart of many institutional experiments, draws on a deficient private compliance model, rather than building in worker-driven elements that could lead towards a better alternative.

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  • Nikolaus Hammer, 2023. "Searching for institutions: upgrading, private compliance, and due diligence in European apparel value chains," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(3), pages 371-386, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:treure:v:29:y:2023:i:3:p:371-386
    DOI: 10.1177/10242589231194313
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Juliane Reinecke & Jimmy Donaghey, 2021. "Towards Worker‐Driven Supply Chain Governance: Developing Decent Work Through Democratic Worker Participation," Journal of Supply Chain Management, Institute for Supply Management, vol. 57(2), pages 14-28, April.
    2. Gregor Murray & Christian Lévesque & Glenn Morgan & Nicolas Roby, 2020. "Disruption and re-regulation in work and employment: from organisational to institutional experimentation," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 26(2), pages 135-156, May.
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    4. Mark ANNER, 2019. "Predatory purchasing practices in global apparel supply chains and the employment relations squeeze in the Indian garment export industry," International Labour Review, International Labour Organization, vol. 158(4), pages 705-727, December.
    5. Nikolaus Hammer & Réka Plugor, 2019. "Disconnecting Labour? The Labour Process in the UK Fast Fashion Value Chain," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(6), pages 913-928, December.
    6. Rossi, Arianna, 2013. "Does Economic Upgrading Lead to Social Upgrading in Global Production Networks? Evidence from Morocco," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 223-233.
    7. John Pickles & Adrian Smith, 2011. "Delocalization and Persistence in the European Clothing Industry: The Reconfiguration of Trade and Production Networks," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(2), pages 167-185.
    8. Leonhard Plank & Cornelia Staritz, 2015. "Global competition, institutional context and regional production networks: up- and downgrading experiences in Romania’s apparel industry," Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 8(3), pages 421-438.
    9. John Pickles & Adrian Smith & Milan Bucěk & Poli Roukova & Robert Begg, 2006. "Upgrading, Changing Competitive Pressures, and Diverse Practices in the East and Central European Apparel Industry," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 38(12), pages 2305-2324, December.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dalia Gesualdi-Fecteau & Christian Lévesque & Gregor Murray & Nicolas Roby, 2023. "Einleitung: Wie wir Arbeit besser machen," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(3), pages 295-304, August.
    2. Dalia Gesualdi-Fecteau & Christian Lévesque & Gregor Murray & Nicolas Roby, 2023. "Introduction. Making work better," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(3), pages 277-284, August.
    3. Dalia Gesualdi-Fecteau & Christian Lévesque & Gregor Murray & Nicolas Roby, 2023. "Introduction : Améliorer le travail," Transfer: European Review of Labour and Research, , vol. 29(3), pages 285-294, August.

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