This WISERD lunchtime seminar is being presented in person by Pauline Jerrentrup (LSE) in partnership with Cardiff Business School. If you are available in person, please feel free to bring your lunch to spark. Tea, coffee, and Welsh Cakes will also be provided. If you do not work in spark and plan to attend in person, please email me (flackb@cardiff.ac.uk or wiserd.events@cardiff.ac.uk) as we can arrange for you to pick up a visitor pass. This seminar will also be available to join online via the Microsoft Teams link provided at the bottom of this invite.
Pauline Jerrentrup is a PhD candidate in the Employment Relations and Human Resources (ERHR) group at the Department of Management, London School of Economics. Pauline’s research is motivated by the quest to find sustainable solutions to labour rights abuses in global supply chains. Her PhD-research focusses on enforceable union-brand agreements, particularly the Dindigul Agreement (involving H&M, PVH, GAP, and a local union in Tamil Nadu, India) and the Lesotho Agreement (with Kontoor Brands, Levi’s, and local unions in Lesotho), both addressing gender-based violence in garment factories. Pauline completed a visiting PhD Fellowship at ILR Cornell University in 2023. She also works as a research consultant and has prior experience in sustainability strategy consulting in Germany.
Enforceable Union-Brand Agreements: Promise, Impact, and Challenges in Protecting Workers’ Rights in Global Supply Chains
Poor labour rights remain endemic to global supply chains, where Western brands source cheap labour from poorly regulated economies, often located in the “global south.” Efforts by brands to improve labour rights, such as through Codes of Conduct and auditing, have consistently failed to protect workers. In response, enforceable agreements (EBAs) between unions (or other workers’ organizations) and brands have emerged, carrying the promise of more effective solutions to improve labour rights. While some celebrate these agreements as “landmark” (GLJ, 2022) or an “alternative paradigm for corporate social responsibility” (Mieres & Mcgrath, 2021: 633), empirical research on the extent to which these agreements live up to their promise remains scarce. My research draws on interviews and fieldwork conducted around two recent EBAs designed to combat gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in garment factories: the Dindigul Agreement (incl. H&M, PVH & GAP and a local union in Tamil Nadu, India) and the Lesotho Agreement (incl. Kontoor Brands, Levi’s & Children’s Place and local unions and organisations in Lesotho). By examining these agreements’ implementation, outcomes, and limitations, I will explore both the promise and the challenges of EBAs as mechanisms for meaningful labour rights protection in the global supply chain context.
Pauline has recently published a report on the Dindigul Agreement, which you can read here. Pauline’s presentation will go beyond this report.