ELICITING MILLENNIAL PERSPECTIVES ON ETHICAL PRACTICES AND MORAL CONDUCT WITHIN THE APPAREL INDUSTRY
Abstract
The 21st century consumers are mindful of problems that impact social and environmental sustainability, fast fashion’s main emphasis is faster turnaround from factories to stay competitive thus some retail companies aren’t paying keen attention on the ethics in apparel production factories (Bhasin, 2014, June 04; Tan, 2016). According to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) forced labor is a worldwide concern affecting 21 million people; simply put there are 3 out of every 1,000 victims who are part of forced labor within Asia-Pacific with 11.7 million and other regions as shown in Appendix A (Mcclelland, 2017). 260 million children partake in employment with an estimate of 170 million children engaged in apparel making; ILO estimated that 6 million children are in forced labor with 14 to 16 working hour days in poor working conditions with reported cases in Bangladesh apparel factories; yarn spinning in India; cotton seeds production in Benin; and harvesting cotton in Uzbekistan (Moulds, 2017; Peiris, 2005). Ashridge Centre for Business and Sustainability, and Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) confirmed that 71% of companies admitted to cases of modern slavery in their supply chain; with 168 million child labor cases in 2017 and a proven improvement from 246 million cases in 2000 (Mcclelland, 2017). Can apparel suppliers and retailers tackle the unethical practices that are impacting humanity and integrate practices that would ensure social sustainability? The focus of this research was for an opportunity to acquire and understand millennials perspectives on the unethical conduct and fashion industry with relevance to apparel sourcing, manufacturing, industry sustainability.
JEL: L60, L67, M14, D29, K20
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References
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejefr.v0i0.225
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