Workers’ Perceptions of Compliance with Labour Standards: Assessing Opportunities and Challenges for Better Work in Lesotho’s Apparel Sector

The apparel sector has been a springboard for industrial development in many countries. The sector, however, has also been notorious for poor working conditions and rampant exploitation of mainly female workers. National systems of enforcement have proved inadequate to the task of ensuring compliance with legislated standards and trade unions have generally made little headway in the sector in developing countries. The reputational damage this situation caused to major brands and retailers in the United States and the European Union (EU) has resulted in efforts to develop private governance to address noncompliance, mainly through the mechanism of codes of conduct and buyer audits under the rubric of corporate social responsibility (CSR). The Better Work programme grew out of an alternative approach first piloted in the Better Factories Cambodia programme. Since then, Better Work has been rolled out in an additional six countries and has emerged as a leader in the social regulation of international labour standards. Lesotho is one of these countries.