A promising trend in business and human rights has been the move away from voluntary toward binding initiatives, and from corporate self-regulation of global supply chains toward agreements that have the buy-in of both labor and multinational companies.

One recent example is the individual agreements signed in Cambodia between garment and textile brands and retailers and IndustriALL Global Union. These are supported by ACT, an initiative between 20 global brands and IndustriALL, to reach living wages for garment and textile workers through collective bargaining and responsible purchasing practices. The binding agreements in Cambodia represent a breakthrough in supply chain labor rights due diligence. They are parallel to and supportive of an ongoing collective bargaining process that aims to improve wages and working conditions in an industry that employs almost one million workers, most of them women, and generates over one-third of the country’s GDP.

Based on meaningful stakeholder engagement, with the integral involvement of both worker representatives and multinationals, the ACT agreements carry the promise of strengthening supply chain industrial relations and lowering portfolio risk for investors. Please join IndustriALL and the Committee on Workers’ Capital (CWC) at 10am ET/3pm UK/4pm CET on 12 November for an investor briefing on the new binding agreements of the ACT initiative. You will hear directly from signatory brands on why they have signed these agreements, as well as the labour and investor perspectives.