An update on the Ethical Clothing Extended Responsibilities Scheme

In 2024, the New South Wales (NSW) Parliament Modern Slavery Committee undertook an Inquiry into the Ethical Clothing Extended Responsibilities Scheme (‘ECERS’). As part of this Inquiry, Ethical Clothing Australia’s National Manager, Rachel Reilly, gave a strong recommendation focusing on enhancing protections of workers in the Textile, Clothing and Footwear industry.  

The final report from the Modern Slavery Committee was handed on 8 August, and the NSW Government released their response on 8 November. 

The key recommendation from the report is to revive the Scheme, as it will give the opportunity to integrate modern slavery principles into a regulatory framework and address supply chain risks. This recommendation was supported by the NSW Government.  According to the report, the policy and legislative reforms could be implemented by mid-2025 [1].

In the initial report, the Committee recommended the development and implementation of a supply chain database to share with stakeholders. The NSW Government supported this recommendation and added that the tool would be used to monitor trends, produce regular reports and provide intelligence on the industry. 

Ethical Clothing Australia already undertakes supply chain mapping  as part of the accreditation program. We are currently in the process of building a new Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, inclusive of this supply chain mapping. We would welcome the opportunity to share our learnings with the NSW Government about the process of developing the supply chain mapping in a CRM. 

The NSW Government noted the need for culturally and linguistically sensitive programs for outworkers to increase their financial literacy and understanding about their workplace rights. 

Ethical Clothing Australia delivers an outworker outreach program as part of our Service Level Agreement with the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union. This program is staffed by bilingual and multilingual Union staff members and aims to engage with outworkers in their homes and in the broader community to provide education and information on their rights as Australian workers. Building awareness of these programs with outworkers can be supported by the outworker outreach program.

One of the recommendations of the Committee was to consider funding Ethical Clothing Australia’s accreditation program. This suggestion was noted, and the NSW Government indicated that further consultation is required.  

Given the existing connection the TCF Union has with the worker population the ECERS aims to better protect, funding support Ethical Clothing Australia to deliver the accreditation and outworker outreach program in NSW would work to support the NSW Government to invigorate the Scheme. Ethical Clothing Australia looks forward to this consultation.  

Ethical Clothing Australia will also be consulted as part of a Stakeholder Engagement Strategy, which will take advice on proposed changes to the Scheme [2].