The Victorian Government is backing the clothing manufacturing sector to grow and support its workers by investing in Ethical Clothing Australia.
Ethical Clothing Australia provides accreditation to textile, clothing and footwear manufacturers to ensure compliance with strict standards including paying workers fairly and providing safe working conditions.
The Victorian Budget 2023/24 invested $4 million to ensure Ethical Clothing Australia can accredit and monitor more businesses, as well as providing new educational materials to ensure workplace safety. To gain accreditation, a business’s manufacturing operations are audited from design to dispatch.
Ethical Clothing Australia national manager Rachel Reilly welcomed the support.
“This funding boost will not only enable ECA to continue to expand the accreditation program in Victoria to protect, uphold and safeguard the rights of Victorian garment workers, but will provide the opportunity to elevate and amplify the voices of business owners, particularly women, of a female dominated industry,” she said.
Minister for Industry and Innovation Ben Carroll said the Victorian Labor Government is supporting fair and safer conditions for the state’s textile industry and workers.
Carroll had visited social fashion enterprise Clothing the Gaps this week to see the support Ethical Clothing Australia is giving to its co-founders Gunditjmara woman Laura Thompson and Sarah Sheridan.
Based in Brunswick, Clothing the Gaps promotes Aboriginal people and culture through its designs and products.
The company’s retail and distribution space is a hub of Indigenous employment, providing work opportunities and supporting people’s careers and ambitions.
Clothing the Gaps joins 125 other business accredited by Ethical Clothing Australia, including Victorian-based companies Assembled Threads and the Arc Clothing Co.
“Clothing the Gaps is glad to see further investment in Ethical Clothing Australia as we believe in backing local supply and ensuring the sector is growing, and that people are being protected in manufacturing processes,” Thompson and Sheridan said.