We have been working on elevating our social responsibility strategy since 2021, where we began working with Fair Wear Foundation, an independent, non-profit organisation that works to improve conditions for workers in the fashion supply chain. We have been a member of Fair Wear Foundation since 2022 and are applying their guidelines to all our work in this area.

The second strand of our Social Impact work is focused on ensuring a higher level of supply chain accountability. We do this mainly by creating long-term partnerships with suppliers and monitoring all sub-contracting taking place in our supply chain. Finally, we look at gender equality, diversity and inclusivity within GANNI’s own offices and stores.

In line with our code of conduct, we approach wages with our suppliers through policy work, auditing, and dialogue to ensure they live up to the national standards for minimum wage. In recent years we have put an increased focus on increasing our wages. As a fashion brand, we do not own our supply chain, which makes our work with scaling wages quite complicated. It is, however, a priority of ours to make our supply chain more transparent and to go beyond the mandatory minimum wage requirements to ensure all of our contractual suppliers, known as Tier 1 suppliers, receive a living wage.

There is an important distinction between minimum wage and living wage in this context, as they are two different concepts. A minimum wage is a legal requirement calculated based on the overall economic condition of the country; as part of our code of conduct, all of GANNI’s suppliers are obligated to pay the minimum wage. A living wage, on the other hand, refers to a wage level high enough to afford a basic but decent standard of living for the worker and their family. The Global Living Wage Coalition describes a living wage as the following:

“The remuneration received for a standard workweek by a worker in a particular place sufficient to afford a decent standard of living for the worker and their family.” Elements of a decent standard of living include food, water, housing, education, healthcare, transport, clothing and other essential needs, including provision for unexpected events.”

Even though living wages are not mandatory by law, ensuring that workers receive living wages is crucial to creating more responsible fashion supply chains, which is why we are committed to this work. We have set a fairly ambitious target to have all Tier 1 suppliers paid a living wage by 2025.

You might be thinking, why is paying a living wage such a complicated process? There are no short answers here, but we will try and summarise the most important points. Because we do not own our supply chain, increasing our wages to a living wage standard involves multiple stakeholders and the sharing of otherwise classified information, which makes it immensely complex. On top of that, the suppliers we work with are not necessarily set the same objectives from other fashion brands they work with, meaning that we have to work with suppliers to create a structure for paying a premium when producing GANNI products, which is only a percentage of their total production volume. Over the years, we have seen other fashion brands fail to succeed in increasing wages to a living wage, heard conflicting advice from NGOs on how to tackle this issue, and seen severe misalignment between countries on how to calculate a living wage. So, to say the least, it’s pretty complicated, but GANNI is committed to doing the work, and in close collaboration with Fair Wear Foundation, we feel optimistic about realising our living wage goal by 2025.

Giving Workers a Voice

Social audits provide an overview of the supplier’s management practice, working conditions and identify areas for improvement. However, we are aware of the inherent limitations of audits; they are often just snapshots of the full picture. Therefore, it is extremely important that workers are given a voice and a channel to raise issues and find solutions.

We encourage our suppliers to resolve any disputes internally but we do, however, also acknowledge that functional factory-level grievance systems may not always be available or trusted by the workers.

That is why we work with Fair Wear Foundation and comply with the complaint and remediation procedure. We set up external complaint hotlines in our supply networks and ensure workers have access to remedies.

We are also looking at areas such as Involuntary Workers, Migrant Workers, and Child Labour. You can see all policies in our Code of Conduct.

Building on previous company-wide initiatives, such as unconscious bias training for all employees, we have improved our selection and recruitment processes in 2022. We also launched a new onboarding programme, bringing new employees together from across the company to build solid relationships with their colleagues.

At the end of 2021, we launched a revised version of our core values – The GANNI Way – which informs our daily decisions, behaviours and actions. The GANNI Way, which includes: Responsibility, Openness, Optimism, Authenticity, and Accountability, is also a key part of performance management conversations with employees.

As part of The GANNI Way, we have launched a series of new policies to help us build a more inclusive and responsible workplace. These policies include sabbatical leave, supporting breastfeeding mothers at work, paid leave for activism and volunteering activities, the right to vote, and a flexible work policy. In addition to this, we have significantly improved our parental leave policies in two of our markets to meet regional benchmarks. We have also implemented new guidelines and processes for internal recruitment and movement across the company to enhance growth and opportunities.

We now run regular internal engagement surveys with diversity and inclusion as a central topic to assess the 'temperature' of the business, which provides us with insights into areas of improvement data.