Fair Labor Association (FLA) is looking for experts who can deliver trainings on a variety of topics around social compliance to the SMEs, brands and labor unions in garment and textile sectors in Turkey. Interested candidates can apply to one or more modules. 

Background 

Supporting Workers Rights and Mitigating Child Labor Risks in SMEs in the Garment and Textile Sectors in Turkeyis a multi-stakeholder collaborative project to enhance workers’ rights in the garment and textiles sectors in Turkey, with an emphasis on addressing child labor, occupational health and safety, grievance mechanisms, and compensation issues in small and medium-size enterprises in Turkey, through awareness raising, capacity building, and case management.

Turkey’s large garment and textile upstream supply chain is complex. Support for internationally recognized worker rights is usually limited to tier 1 suppliers. The upper tiers of the supply chain are often complex to trace and largely ignored. Beyond tier 1 workplaces operate informally, have precarious working conditions and pose high risk for workers. Employers in these small and medium-size (SME) enterprises are not aware of national or international requirement on decent work and child labor mitigation strategies. There is paucity of research on the profile and needs of workers, who are often treated as a monolith group. Hence, the existing intervention strategies do not adequately address the needs of workers and their families and the priority to eliminate child labor. Finally, even if some steps are being taken, those efforts are isolated, uncoordinated and seldom complement the national action plans.

In October 2018, Fair Labor Association has launched a multi-stakeholder projectto improve working conditions for workers in tier 2 facilities, provide support and access to resources for vulnerable workers. The stakeholders that have already committed to working with FLA includes unions, government agencies, and private companies to create a sustainable initiative that increases awareness about labor issues, prevents violations of labor standards, and provides practical alternatives to protect vulnerable persons in Turkish supply chains. 

24 months project will have three specific objectives:

1. Undertaking stakeholder engagement and information dissemination to promote decent work and eliminate child labor and workers’ rights violations.
2. Creating visibility into the upstream supply chain and piloting remediation and prevention of exploitation of vulnerable workers. 
3. Developing or strengthening existing programs by building the capacity of key stakeholders (employers, trade unions, brands, workers, CSOs and Government officials) in the garment and textiles supply chain to promote decent workplace and eliminate child labor. 

Aim and Scope of the Assignment

Within the scope of the project’s capacity  building activities, The Fair Labor Association (FLA) will be developing training modules and delivering trainings. To conduct this exercise, the FLA seeks to engage a thirdparty contractor/s (the Consultant) to provide the required services.

The consultant is expected to undertake the assignment between September 2019 and March 2020and invest a maximum of thirty six (36) days throuhgout the contract duration.

The training modules development period is identified as September 2019-October 2019. The Consultant should be available for review and feedback, which will be provided by FLA. Following the development of modules, FLA seeks to conduct a series of trainings targeting brands, suppliers and labor unions in the textile and garment sector in Istanbul. 

Content of the Assignment

The consultant(s) is expected develop training materials and conduct trainings in the following topics, in a way that is easily understood by the participants from SMEs and labor unions in textile and garment sectors.   

Module 1: Better Supply Chain Management: Improving sustainability and due diligence beyond Tier One* (2 days)

Objective:Help to improve brands and suppliers to improve sustainability and due diligence beyond Tier 1. 

Target Group: Brands and Suppliers in Textile and Garment Sector

Content:

• Supply Chain Mapping (importance, approach, Quick tips)
• Stakeholder Mapping
• Action Planning
• Sample policy for Tier 2
• Worker profiling
• Root Cause Analysis
• Sub-contracting
• Challenges brands and suppliers may face

Module 2: Decent Work in Textile and Garment* (1 day)

Objective: Issue-based training  to improve the understanding of companies and labor unions on worker rights issues 

Target Group:Human Resources managers, compliance officers and others who are involved in the hiring processes in small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Textile and Garment Sectors;  Labor Unions

• Empoloyment Relationship
• Child Labor
• Discrimination
• Harrassment and Abuse
• Compensation
• Hours of Work

Module 3: Creation of Communication Channels / grievance and grievance redressal mechanisms across different parts of the supply chain* (1/2 day)

• (1) Increase capacity of companies to ensure workers' access to remedies 

(2) Increasing capacity of companies to prevent and remediate non-compliances.

Target Group:Human Resources managers, compliance officers and others who are involved in the hiring processes in small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Textile and Garment Sectors; Labor Unions

• Key Principles of a complaints&grievance policy
• Steps for Creating a complaints&grievance policy
• Guidelines on the content of a complaints&grievance policy
• Procedures (formal, informal etc)
• Communication of the complaints&grievance policy to the workers

Module 4: Training of Trainers on Worker Trainings (1 day)

Objective: To increase the soft skills of the company staff who are responsible for delivering trainings to workers

Target Group:Human Resources managers, compliance officers in small and Medium Sized Enterprises in Textile and Garment Sectors; Labor Unions

• Preparing 30-minutes mini modules for worker trainings from the Decent Work training module
• Increasing the soft skills of the company staff who are responsible for delivering trainings to workers
• Shadowing at least 3 participants’ worker training

*The are some materials on Better Supply Chain Managemernt,  Creation of Grivience Mechanisms and Decent Work in Textile and Garment already available in FLA. These content will be adopted to the local context  with relevant case studies and will be translated into Turkish.

Methodology

To ensure an effective and successful training session, the FLA recommends each training session to accommodate 15- 20 participants. In the case the number of participants is more than 20, FLA will inform the Consultant in a timely manner. The training workshop will be based on Action Based Learning Approach that involves, brain-storming of ideas, finding best practices and action planning. 

Expected Activities and Deliverables

Training Material and Logistics

FLA will provide equipment, supplies and venues for the training sessions as follows;

• projector,
• printed materials of the training, (handouts, case studies, forms, etc.)
• flip charts,
• markers,
• other stationary materials
• venue and refreshment costs
• accommodation for participants, if required
• meals for participants 
• transportation cost of participants, if required
• meals for trainers,
• accommodation for trainers, if required

The Consultant will develop/adapt all modules, tools, and forms necessary for the training conduction and training guidance materials for training the participants. 

The Consultant will be responsible for;

• transportation of trainers
• other per diem related costs

Consultant is expected to include the above-mentioned cost in the budget proposal. All trainings will be conducted in Istanbul.

Requirements regarding the Consultant

General Qualifications

• University degree in Social/Political Sciences, Economics, International Relations, or other related social sciences or Communications. 
• Proficiency in Turkish and English is required. 
• Computer skills (i.e. MS Office applications). 
• Advanced degree (master or higher) on a relevant field is asset. 

General Professional Experience

• At least (10) ten years of general professional experience is required. 

Spesific Professional Experience

• Experience in developing training manuals and modules
• Trainer skills with particular experience in participatory techniques
• Experience of work in social compliance and sustainability preferably in the textile sector
• Knowledge of national and international legislation on the training topics

The interested candidates are expected to submit their proposal for the Training Consultancy for Capacity Building for SMEs in Textile and Garment Sector to the FLA by August 23, 2019.  The candidate should clearly indicate which module/s they are interested in. Application package should also include;

• Background of the team members (CVs)
• Proposed methodology and timeplan
• Proof of related previous work
• Financial offer