Baptist World Aid Australia has released its 2019 Ethical Fashion Report, which sheds light on what the industry and individual companies are doing to address forced labour, child labour and exploitation.

The report grades 130 Australian companies from A to F, based on the efforts undertaken by each company to mitigate the risks of forced labour, child labour and worker exploitation in their supply chains, as well as protect the environment from the harmful impacts of the fashion industry. Higher grades are given to companies with ethical sourcing systems that, if implemented well, should reduce the extent of worker exploitation and environmental harm. These assessments consider three critical stages of the supply chain as a proxy for the entire supply chain: raw materials, inputs production and final stage manufacturing. 

The findings reveal that Australian fashion brands are becoming more transparent about how they make their clothes, but there is still much more to be done on workers’ rights, living wage and environmental impact. 38% of companies assessed had improved their rating from the previous year and 24 of the 130 companies achieved an A rating (from A– up to A+). Top ranked fashion brands included Outland Denim, Etiko, Mighty Good Undies, Freeset T-shirts, Icebreaker and Liminal Apparel who all scored A+.

However, 34 companies were graded at either a D+ down to an F grade and the median grading of the companies on human rights and welfare was a D.