Skip to main content

Social Sustainability in Apparel Supply Chains: Organizational Practices for Managing Sub-Contracted Homework

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Book cover Sustainability in Fashion
  • 8310 Accesses

Abstract

As the lowest level in the subcontracted supply chain, homeworkers are invisible and subject to exploitation. Existing codes of conduct and monitoring schemes favor the rights of the visible workforce employed in industrial settings in tier 1 factories. We conducted qualitative field research with the Self Employed Women’s Association’s (SEWA) embroidery center in New Delhi, India. Findings provide understanding of the sustainable management policies and practices that have been put in place to assure global buyers that homework can be carried out in ways consistent with standards for human rights, making it a protected component of sustainable supply chains.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 139.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 179.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • American Society of International Law. (1997). International labour conference: Home work convention, 1996 and recommendation concerning home work. International Legal Materials, 36(1), 55–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhatt, E. R. (2006). We are poor but so many: The story of self-employed women in India. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bhatt, E., & Jhabvala, R. (2004). The idea of work. Economic and Political Weekly, 39(48), 5133–5140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boris, E. (1989). Homework and women’s rights: The case of the Vermont knitters, 1980–85, in E. Boris & C. R. Daniels (Eds.) Homework: Historical and contemporary perspectives on paid labor at home (pp. 233–257). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Brill, L. (2002). Can codes of conduct help home-based workers?, in R. Jenkins, R. Pearson, & G. Seyfang (Eds.) Corporate responsibility and labour rights: Codes of conduct in the global economy (pp. 113–123). London: Earthscan Publications Ltd.

    Google Scholar 

  • Burchielli, R., & Delaney, A. (2009). Homework and CSR: Can homeworkers benefit? In: 15th World Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association (IIRA), 24 August 2009–28 August 2009, Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buttle, M. (2008, 18 July). Homeworking in the Indian garment industry: What are the issues and how can homeworkers’ lives be improved. Retrieved 2011, 5 April from impact: http://www.impacttlimited.com/2008/07/18/homeworking-in-the-indian-garment-industry-what-are-the-issues-and-how-can-homeworkers-lives-be-improved/.

  • Castka, P., & Balzarova, M. A. (2007). A critical look on quality through CSR lenses: Key challenges stemming from the development of ISO 26000. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 24(7), 738–752.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castka, P., Bamber, C. J., Bamber, D. J., & Sharp, J. M. (2004). Integrating corporate social responsibility (CSR) into ISO management systems – in search of a feasible CSR management system framework. TQM Magazine, 16(3), 216–224.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Datta, R. (2003). From development to empowerment: The self-employed women’s association in India. International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, 16(3), 351–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delaney, A. (2004). Global trade and home work: Closing the divide. Gender and Development, 12(2), 22–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Delaney, A. (n.a.). Accounting for corporate social responsibility: Does it benefit workers across the supply chain?

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickson, M. A., & Chang, R. K. (2015). Apparel manufacturers’ path to world class corporate social responsibility: Perspectives of CSR professionals, in T.-M. Choi & T. C. E. Cheng (Eds.) Sustainable fashion supply chain management (pp. 107–127). Springer: Switzerland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickson, M. A., Loker, S., & Eckman, M. (2009). Social responsibility in the global apparel industry. New York: Fairchild Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • ETI. (2010). Homeworkers and homeworking: An introduction. Retrieved 2011, 7 April from http://www.ethicaltrade.org/in-action/projects/homeworkers-project/guidelines.

  • Freeman, D. (2003). Homeworkers in the global supply chains. Greener Management International, 43, 107–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Green, N. L. (2003). Fashion, flexible specialization, and the sweatshop: A historical problem, in D. E. Bender & R. A. Greenwald (Eds.) Sweatshop USA: The American sweatshop in historical and global perspective (pp. 37–56). Routledge: New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hensman, R. (2005). Defending workers’ rights in subcontracted workplaces, in W. W. Worldwide, A. Hale, & J. Wills (Eds.) Threads of labour garment industry supply chains from the worker’s perspectives (Vol. 1, pp. 189–209). Blackwell Publishing Ltd: Malden, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurley, J., & Miller, D. (2005). The changing face of the global garment industry, in W. W. Worldwide, A. Hale, & J. Wills (Eds.) Threads of labour garment industry supply chains from the worker’s perspectives (Vol. I, pp. 16–39). Blackwell Publishing Ltd: Malden, MA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kapoor, A. (2007). The SEWA way: Shaping another future for informal labour. Futures, 39: 554–568.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Littrell, M. A., & Dickson, M. A. (2010). Artisans and fair trade crafting development. Sterling, VA: Kumarian Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marian, P. (2013, July 1). Harnessing homeworkers in the apparel supply chain. Available from www.just-style.com

  • McCormick, D., & Schmitz, H. (2001). Manual for value chain research on homeworkers in the garment industry. Manual.

    Google Scholar 

  • SEWA Bharat. (2008–2009). 2008–09 SEWA Bharat. Annual Report. Annual Report, SEWA Bharat.

    Google Scholar 

  • Spodek, H. (1994). The self-employed women’s association (SEWA) in India: Feminist, Gandhian power in development. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 43(1), 193–202.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Strauss, A. C., & Corbin, J. M. (2008). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. SAGE Publications, Inc: Thousand Oaks, CA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson-Weber, C. M. (1997). Skill, dependency, and differentiation: Artisans and agents in the Lucknow embroidery industry. Ethnology, 36(1), 49–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, P. (2005). Leveraging change in the working conditions of the UK homeworkers. Development in Practice, 15(3/4), 546–558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wills, J., & Hale, A. (2005). Threads of labour in the global garment industry, in A. Hale & J. Wills (Eds.) Threads of Labour: Garment Industry Supply Chains from the Worker’s Perspectives (Vol. 1, p. 266). Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marsha A. Dickson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2017 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Archana, Dickson, M.A. (2017). Social Sustainability in Apparel Supply Chains: Organizational Practices for Managing Sub-Contracted Homework. In: Henninger, C., Alevizou, P., Goworek, H., Ryding, D. (eds) Sustainability in Fashion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51253-2_10

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics