Scale of WSR Impacts
A longstanding concern with worker driven social responsibility (WSR) agreements is the relatively small number of workers considered to benefit from each agreement. Agreements typically cover a single worksite or a handful of worksites, encompassing just employees on those sites, though some, such as the International Accord, are larger in scale. Government, civil society, and academics have celebrated the benefits of these agreements for the workers covered by them but have bemoaned the insufficient reach of these agreements as a strategy to address problems in global supply chains. This research brief offers an alternative way of understanding and conceptualizing the scale of worker driven social responsibility. Anchored in a survey (N=1098) and in-depth interviews (N=116) of garment workers in Dindigul, India, and surrounding regions (Tirupur, Namakkal, Salem, Erode), this brief analyzes the impacts of the Dindigul Agreement to Eliminate Gender-Based Violence and Harassment (2022-2025) and highlights how a single agreement can impact issue areas and workers beyond its immediate remit. The Dindigul Agreement was a pioneering effort made possible by an ecosystem of labor groups, including an independent Dalit trade union in India run by women and a Global South-based labor alliance led by trade unions across Asia’s production countries, and a global labor rights non-profit. It included a set of legally binding agreements with major apparel brands H&M Group, Gap Inc., and PVH, and Eastman Exports Global Clothing Ltd around gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH).