We believe that collective bargaining at industry level, enabled by freedom of association and responsible purchasing practices, is the most realistic pathway to making an impact on wages.
The Memorandum of Understanding – signed between member companies and IndustriALL – is the basis for the cooperation between ACT members, outlining the commitments necessary to establish freedom of association, collective bargaining and living wages within global supply chains.
A living wage is the minimum income necessary for a worker to meet the basic needs of himself/herself and his/her family, including some discretionary income. This should be earned during legal working hour limits (i.e. without overtime).There are different concepts of living wages and the proposed figures vary considerably. There is a broad consensus though that current wages in most garment producing countries are well below any meaningful understanding of living wage.
ACT selected these initial countries on the basis of sizable garment production with considerable presence of ACT member brands and the potential for trade unions to engage in collective bargaining at industry level. In the past, ACT has also extensively worked in Myanmar.
Executive Director
Mira brings extensive industrial relations and international Collective Bargaining experience to the Secretariat. Prior to joining ACT Mira Neumaier was Vice-President at the Civil Aviation Section of the European Transport Workers Federation, International Transport Workers Federation and served as Head of the National Civil Aviation and Maritime Section of a general services union. Mira has a background in economics, labor law and sociology.
Head of Operations, Accountability and Monitoring
Bea Ruoff has a background in economics and business administration. Prior to joining ACT she has designed and managed multi-stakeholder research projects at the Berlin School of Economics and Law and was a researcher and teacher with a focus on labour market development and inequality, wage setting and global production networks.
Head of Programmes
David Cichon has a background in sociology and political science with a research focus on industrial relations in global value chains. He completed his doctoral thesis on wage setting in Cambodia’s garment and footwear industry.
Head of access to remedy and due diligence | Manager country programmes
Tandiwe Gross joined the team in June 2018. She has a background in political science, law and labour policies, and has worked for the ILO in the field of online capacity building and technical advice on due diligence. More recently she served in the ILO Liaison Office in Myanmar.
Grievance Mechanism Coordinator
David O’Connell has a background in political science, social science and labour policies. David is a doctoral candidate at the University of Kassel, exploring questions of employee ownership, microeconomics, and labour strategy.
Administration Officer
Country Programme Manager
Syed Saad Ali Pasha has a background in global business history and business administration. He worked for the United Nations Development Programme and the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Development. Saad is also British Council’s global SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Empowerment Ambassador
Director, Textile and Garment Industry, IndustriALL Global Union
General Secretary, IndustriALL Global Union
Area Lead, Global Sustainability, H&M Group
Primark
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