The city of Amsterdam spends a considerable amount of money each year on workwear. There are almost 9,000 people who use workwear within the different sectors of the city council (fire department, garbage collectors, etc.), and Amsterdam pays nearly 2 million Euros per year for their uniforms. At the moment every department can buy its own clothes, though the city is planning to coordinate purchasing more centrally.

In December 2000 the Amsterdam city council adopted a resolution on clean clothes. The resolution states that the city council should take measures to ensure that when purchasing goods, city employees should pay attention to labor conditions and environmental norms. The Clean Clothes Campaign Netherlands has used this resolution as an opportunity to investigate Amsterdam's policy for purchasing workwear. The CCC interviewed those involved: the civil servants who buy uniforms and workwear, small Dutch trading companies that contract for the production of such garments and the actual garment factories that supply them with uniforms. The CCC found that those city employees in charge of purchasing workwear had no idea where the garments were produced or under what conditions. They did not monitor their workwear producers to determine if workplace standards matched good labor or environmental norms and did not see it as their responsibility to do so.

Adopting the clean clothes resolution could have a considerable influence on the policy of workwear trading companies and producers, and hopefully lead to improvements in working conditions. The problem is that although the resolution was adopted in December 2000, it has still not been implemented. This is because the city of Amsterdam wants to set up a central purchasing agency, which would oversee the enforcement of such policies. Until this agency is set up, any further action on implementing the resolution is on hold.

Characteristics of the workwear industry

Sometimes, the workwear sector purchases products made directly for the mainstream garment industry -- for example, T-shirts. However, this research highlighted several specific characteristics of the workwear sector that differentiate it from the broader garment industry, though there are many similarities. Because these observations are based on one research project in the Netherlands, we can't conclude that these are structural differences. This research found that:

· in the workwear sector the production chain is shorter then in the general garment industry. Companies in the Netherlands often have direct contact with the factory that is producing for them. Workwear has special characteristics (ex. some safety and visibility standards that are legally required). This might explain why there are direct links between producers and factories;

· relationships between workwear companies and factories are often longterm, sometimes lasting as long as ten years or longer. This is generally not the case in the garment industry, where production is often shifted quite quickly from factory to factory. This can be due to the fact that specific skills are required to produce workwear, and workers need to be trained to make them. Some producers who were interviewed said that the factories they worked with gave their workers special training so that they could produce workwear. Therefore, for a producer it can be efficient to maintain a relationship with a factory;

· a great deal of workwear production for the Netherlands takes place near the European Union. Both the garment industry in general and the workwear sector produce in countries bordering onto Western Europe, such as countries in Eastern Europe, Turkey, Morocco and Tunis. But the workwear sector produces mainly in these countries, whereas garments made for the Western European market are also produced in Asia and other parts of the world;

· producers of workwear companies interviewed do not have codes of conduct. This is a major difference between workwear companies and large garment companies who have almost all adopted codes of conduct. Producers of workwear sometimes have an internal code, but this has to do with positive discrimination within the office and nothing to do with labor conditions where workwear is produced.

Research findings

· City service departments and trading companies don't know where their clothes come from
Many Dutch companies (including trading companies) sell their products to the city of Amsterdam. Many city employees who were interviewed think that because they do business with a Dutch company, the workwear is also made in the Netherlands and therefore under good labor conditions and in compliance with environmental standards. Or the delivery time is very short and therefore they think that production is in the Netherlands or in Western Europe. The research shows that no workwear purchased for the city of Amsterdam is produced in the Netherlands, or, apart from a small portion in Portugal, in Western Europe. Amsterdam's workwear is produced mainly in Eastern Europe and North Africa.

It is striking that trading companies do not know where the clothes they sell are made or the labor conditions at the production facilities. Representatives of these Dutch companies showed a remarkable simplicity in their thinking regarding working conditions. One women from a trading company said, "They showed me pictures of the factory that produces for us and I didn't see any children, so I assume that there is no child labor in the factory."

· City employees who purchase workwear have often not considered labor and environmental norms
The only thing that appears to interest city employees who handle purchasing is the question of whether or not there was child labor involved in producing the garments. However, when asked if they wanted to buy workwear that was made under good labor and environmental conditions the city employees almost all indicated that they were very interested in buying these clothes if they were on the market.
One city employee who was interviewed said that when this was not being taken care of, it would be difficult for him to sleep at night. Others referred to the example role of the government.
Nobody ever thought about asking questions on environmental norms.

· Buyers do not monitor labor conditions or environmental norms at factories producing workwear
One city employee asked a trading company about labor conditions and environmental norms. The trading company made a phone call to the producer who assured him that he produced without child labor and with respect for environmental norms. The trading company then wrote a letter to the city employee, saying that all his demands were met. The trading company had never visited the factory.

· Stakeholders see each other as being primarily responsible for enforcing labor standards
The city employees who purchase the garments and the trading companies that organize their production -- think that it is the supplier's responsibility to ensure that workwear is produced under good working conditions and with respect for the environment. The trading companies, meanwhile, think that it the actual garment producer's own responsibility to improve working conditions. However, the producers will not make a move to improve labor standards and compliance with environmental norms until their customers ask them to.

The Clean Clothes Campaign Netherlands started the Clean Clothes Communities project in 1999. It targets local public authorities to become ethical consumer and to encourage clothing companies in their communities to produce under good labor conditions. Participation in this Clean Clothes Communities project could encourage Amsterdam and other Dutch communities to change this situation. If city councils announce that they want to have "ethical" workwear, producers will need to improve their compliance with both environmental and labor standards.

A CCC report on this research, which was presented to the Amsterdam City Council on March 25th, contains recommendations for all stakeholders. At the meeting, all stakeholders were present and the response to the report looked very hopeful. The representative of the city council promised to implement the resolution soon and workwear companies which were present at the meeting expressed interest to join the Fair Wear Foundation.

Photo caption:
Amsterdam city council representative accepts the CCC report on the workwear sector and vows to implement the council's Dec. 2000 resolution on clean clothes.