This week, The Circle launched its latest report: Fashion Focus – A Proposal for New EU Legislation on a Living Wage, calling for the first ever proposal for EU regulation specifically aimed at achieving a living wage. The report looks to suggest tangible change that can be implemented by both governments and factories to end the injustice of poverty wages suffered by millions within the global garment industry.
This morning, The Circle gathered together with some of the industry’s leading voices to detail the contents of the report. Opened by Livia Firth, the webinar put forward the central tenets of the proposal and included discussions between prominent speakers from the garment sector, international law and business and human rights discuss the proposal within the context of changes occurring within EU regulation.
The Circle have long been in search of a breakthrough around poverty wages and labour rights injustice in the global garment industry. The report follows the 2019 publication of Fashion Focus: Towards a Legal Framework for a Living Wage, in which existing EU regulations were examined as to how creating a precedent for a new living wage regulation. Now, as the fashion industry emerges from the global pandemic, Jessica Simor QC, author of the report, argues the need for a concrete legal solution in a ready-to-debate draft regulation. This comes off the back of the EU announcement for mandatory human rights due diligence legislation in 2021.