WRAP

 

Where a company is not “Fair Trade” certified, the reaction is to write it off as unethical. Fair Trade was created specifically to apply to production workers in developing countries and therefore would not be applicable to factories at all or to any cotton grown in non-developing countries such as the US, South America and Turkey.

WRAP (Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production) is another certification (currently specifically for clothing) which enforces 12 basic principles to protect the lives and improve the working conditions of workers within over 10,000 factories in more than 73 countries around the world. It doesn’t apply just to developing countries and yet still ensures ethical practice.

WRAP Principles or Standards are:

  1. Compliance with Laws and Workplace Regulations
  2. Prohibition of Forced Labour
  3. Prohibition of Child Labour
  4. Prohibition of Harassment and Abuse in the workplace
  5. Appropriate compensation and benefits including a minimum wage compliant with local laws
  6. Hours worked each day and days worked each week will not exceed the legal limitations of the country where the factory is located
  7. Prohibition of Discrimination
  8. Factories will be a Healthy and Safe working environment
  9. Freedom of Association & Collective Bargaining
  10. Environmental laws will be complied with and environmentally conscious practises will be observed
  11. Customs Law will be complied with.
  12. There will be Security procedures in place to guard against unsafe shipments from being sent (i.e. containing drugs and contraband).

Wrap is dedicated to promoting humane, ethical and lawful conditions and practices in manufacturing facilities through independent auditing processes. WRAP is also recognised as a high standard of certification by the IRCA (International Register of Certified Auditors) who indicate that from your point of view a WRAP certified product will have been produced by sound ethical procedures.

Although this certification does only apply to factories, and so does not necessarily guarantee that the cotton pickers also work in similar conditions, some companies (such as Starworld) have vertical integration which means that they are in direct control not only of their factories but also of their cotton growing. When a company such as this has WRAP certification, it is considered that the whole chain will be ethical including both the manufacture in the factories and production in the fields.