Hide and Stitch: Efforts to Change the Way We Value Home Based Work In The Apparel Industry10/30/2017 Hide and Stitch: Efforts to Change the Way We Value Home Based Work In The Apparel Industry http://ift.tt/2A29AcT Rebecca van Bergen, the entrepreneur behind NEST, is bringing visibility, fairness, safety, and accountability to the garment and apparel industry's millions of home workers, most of them women in developing economies. Ashoka’s Simon Stumpf caught up with van Bergen this week to learn more. Simon Stumpf: Rebecca, when you look at, say, a decorative pillow with a "Made in India" tag, what do you see that the rest of us don't see? Rebecca van Bergen: Many people assume that most of these products are produced partly or entirely by automation in a factory when actually they are touched by human hands. I'm talking about work such as buttonholes on your shirt, or the soles sewn on the bottom of your shoes. The embellishments on your pillow may have been added by people working outside the relatively transparent work world of factories – by a home worker, subcontracted by a factory. She is part of this huge, invisible and generally unregulated workforce. Stumpf: So, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Van Bergen: Historically, the garment industry has seen subcontracting home workers as a negative thing, because home work is not regulated, so there's no transparency in pay or working conditions. A lot of well-meaning companies have put into place “no home-working” policies for the factories that produce their goods. But these policies can have negative consequences for women workers especially. Why? Because in many cases, women cannot work except from home. A great many are caring for children or other dependents or they face gender discrimination when working outside the home. So, no-subcontracting policies can often become in reality anti-woman-worker policies. Stumpf: Does NEST's work fit into the fair trade movement? Business via Forbes - Entrepreneurs http://ift.tt/dTEDZf October 30, 2017 at 01:31PM
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