Codes of Conduct The real Impacts of Codes of Conduct in the Garment Industry in Tirupur

Abstract

Codes of Conduct have become key instruments in ensuring minimum labor standards in global production system. However, although Codes have spread around all different kind of industries and have created a general awareness of the importance of social, environmental and labor standards, critics about the concept have also increased. The core debate is concerned with the question if Codes of Conduct meet their primary objective of benefiting workers in global production systems through improvements of employment conditions. The aim of this paper is to contribute to this debate, by exploring the real impacts of Codes of Conduct on labor conditions and how workers benefit from them. In order to get information about Codes and its impacts a research study about impacts of Codes was conducted in Tirupur India. The paper argues that Codes of Conduct meet their primary objective of benefiting workers in the production system, but in a limited way. There is gap between what codes intent to improve and what they really achieve.