The Hong Kong apparel industry has been given the thumbs down for its lack of accountability on labor standards and compliance.

A report prepared by Oxfam Hong Kong, Transparency Report: How Hong Kong Garment Companies
Can Improve Public Reporting of their Labour Standards, analyses the reporting of 16 Hong Kong garment companies, and finds they come up short.

The 16 companies - PMDT, Texiwinca Holdings, Bossini International Holdings, Giordano International, heroic Rendezvous, Young Grace International, IT, Veeko International Holdings, Lai Sun Garment (International), Goldlion Holdings, G2000 (Apparel), Chickeeduck, U-Right International, Fashion Community Kitterick and Esprit Holdings - account for 44 major brands covering all the big market segments of men's, women's teen's and children's clothes.

Only four of these companies scored above zero. Esprit and Giordano got the highest marks but that was only 10 points each. And unlike outfits like Nike and Levi Strauss, these companies are under far less global pressure from anti-sweatshop campaigns.

Hong Kong is the obvious place to look. The global apparel industry was worth $US201 billion in 2002 and Hong Kong, the second biggest apparel exporter in the world, accounted for a large proportion of that.

The Transparency Report Card doesn't assess what the companies are actually doing in their supply chain, just how they are reporting against it using publicly available information.

Public reporting is an important part of corporate social responsibility and business ethics because it makes companies accountable and helps them develop better practices to tackle abuses. Bad reporting is a worry.