MELBOURNE: Ethical Clothing Australia (ECA) has been hit with a second resignation in as many months with national coordinator Emer Diviney announcing her departure.
The not-for-profit organisation, which assists Australian textile businesses in ensuring their Australian workers receive fair pay and working conditions, has been led by Diviney since November 2009. In an email to ECA members and colleagues on January 31, Diviney announced she was resigning due to health issues.
“The last 18 months have been an exciting time for the program with a significant growth in accredited brands and growing consumer interest in ethical Australian manufactured clothing,” Diviney wrote.
“To ensure this growth continues I felt it was important to make way for a new national coordinator who has the required energy to build on this momentum.”
Diviney's replacement is yet to be announced.
Her resignation follows the departure of ECA media and communications staffer, Tommy Clarke, in December 2010.
ECA is a joint business-union initiative and was formerly known as the Homeworkers Code of Practice and the No Sweatshop Label. In addition to working with fashion and textile businesses to help them become ECA accredited, the organisation also promotes accredited businesses to consumers via its ECA trademarks and swing tags.
Labels that are ECA accredited include Ginger & Smart, Collette Dinnigan, Lisa Ho, Jets, Cue and Bardot.