"Australian fashion brands must improve on workers' rights, report says", 10 April 2019

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... according to the findings in the latest Ethical Fashion report... which surveyed more than 130 companies with 480 brands...

[T]his year’s survey showed that 38% of the companies surveyed had improved their rating... led by customers calling for greater transparency as well as fashion companies changing their own practices and cultures.

...24 of the 130 achieving 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+.

The bad news... was that 34 companies were graded at either a D+ down to an F grade, although... “It’s not that they are actively exploiting people in their supply chain, they just won’t tell us, and they won’t give public information that we can assess separately....”

Unfortunately many company gradings on human rights and welfare remained disappointing... “The median grading of the companies was a D..."

Similarly those paying a living wage were few and far between: “Even though close to 50% of the companies are developing policies and expressing an intent, only 5% could actually demonstrate that they are doing this in the latter stages of the production process...”