Clinton Backs New Code for Apparel Firms

In a bid to combat child labor and worker exploitation in the United States and overseas, President Clinton on Monday endorsed a new set of standards devised by some of the nation’s best-known apparel makers, along with unions, religious groups and others.

The new code--which would impose limited caps on workweeks, restrictions on child labor and loosely worded wage protections in factories notorious for exploitative conditions--was praised by the White House as a “historic step” toward fighting workplace abuses at home and abroad.

The recommendations are part of a voluntary code of conduct for apparel manufacturers and their contractors in the United States and abroad. Companies on the task force--Liz Claiborne, Nike, Reebok and L.L. Bean among them--have agreed to adopt the standards.

“Of course, this agreement is just the beginning,” Clinton said in a White House ceremony. “We know sweatshop labor will not vanish overnight.” He added: “That is why we need more companies to join this crusade and follow its strict rules of conduct.”

The voluntary code was assailed immediately by human-rights activists, who said it does not go nearly far enough to help workers and that it is riddled with loopholes. Several apparel manufacturers object to proposals for monitoring of their workplaces to ensure compliance.

“We don’t see solutions to the industry’s domestic problems in this report,” said Lonnie Kane, president of the California Fashion Assn., a trade group that represents major apparel manufacturers in Southern California. “I doubt that the task force will get many companies to sign on to this code.”

Among the provisions, which would apply to apparel manufacturers as well as to their contractors:

* Workers under age 15 could not be employed, unless the country permits 14-year-old workers, in which case the lower age would apply.

* Participating employers would be expected to pay either a nation’s minimum wage or prevailing industry wage, whichever is higher, and to provide employees with a “safe and healthy” working environment.

* Mandatory overtime would be limited to 12 hours per week and a day off would be required every seven days.

The task force also agreed that consumers should be informed which companies have adopted the standards, but the group has not yet decided what form that notification would take.

The code has been endorsed by an array of groups, including the Union of Needletrades, Industrial and Textile Employees, the National Consumers League, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights and such apparel labels as Phillips-Van Heusen, Patagonia, Tweeds, Nicole Miller and Karen Kane.

But some labor and human-rights activists denounced the code as virtually meaningless.

“We were pretty shocked when we saw what the final agreement was,” said Medea Benjamin, executive director of Global Exchange in San Francisco, citing the broad latitude allowed companies in paying low, local wages, and loopholes, such as a provision that enables firms to skirt caps on overtime hours if they cite “extraordinary business circumstances.”