Alacoque McAlpine
Research area: EU Law, Labour Law in Supply Chains
Email: (opens in a new window)alacoque.mcalpine@ucdconnect.ie
Supervisor: Dr Sara Benedí Lahuerta
Thesis title: Fashioning an Ethical Supply Chain: Supporting Efforts for a Living Wage for European Factory Workers in the Hypermobile Garment Industry
Abstract
Alacoque’s work addresses the ineffectiveness of Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives and existing legislation to provide a living wage for garment workers within buyer-driven supply chains and makes a case for an EU level solution. While improvements have been made in areas like factory safety, issues like insufficient wages and excessive overtime persist, throughout the global garment industry. There is a wealth of scholarly work focusing on the lack of labour rights of those working in the Asian garment sector however even within EU member states, NGOs report terrible living conditions for the people making our clothes. The EU is the second largest exporter in textile and clothing after China. With the removal of trade barriers many Western European garment firms relocated production to Eastern Europe to exploit cheaper labour as well as proximity to customers. This thesis will outline how the structural factors of the garment industry allow the wage issue to persevere, make the case for EU intervention and will suggest what an EU level solution could look like.
Biography
Alacoque is an IRC Government of Ireland Scholar at the Sutherland School of Law, University College Dublin. Alacoque studied Business and Law (BBLS) at UCD followed by an MBS in Supply Chain Management at the Michael Smurfit Business School, UCD.
She lectures on Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Leading Sustainability at Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin). Through her research she has come acutely aware of the complexities of global supply chains (SC’s) and the resultant social and environmental issues. Her current research allows her to bring together knowledge of SCM and the law with the aim of closing regulatory gaps in SC's.
In addition to her academic work, she has spoken on Irish National TV and Radio and written for Irish newspapers on the human costs of garment SC’s.
Alacoque's other research interests include Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship Education. She believes that Higher Education institutions have a significant role in developing the next generation of global citizens and alleviating climate and social injustice. Through new teaching and learning strategies she hopes to advance sustainable development through well-articulated student voices. She has won two GrowthHub bursaries to develop Level nine sustainability modules.
Research funding/awards
Awarded a Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship in 2023
Conferences
McAlpine, A. ‘Supporting Efforts for A Living Wage in The European Union (EU): The Case of European Garment Workers’ (EUSocialCit Summer School, University of Amsterdam, June 2023).
McAlpine, A., ‘Stakeholder Influence on Improving Labour Rights in Garment Supply Chains’ (European School of Law Toulouse's Doctoral Workshops, Barcelona, July 2022).
McAlpine, A., Freeman, O., Walsh, L., Lowe, Mairi, McMahon, C., ‘Empowering future leaders to develop Global Citizenship competencies through engagement with a Real-World Sustainability Challenge: The Good Clothes Fair Pay Campaign’ (University of Glasgow, Communicating Sustainability Conference, September 2022).
McAlpine, A., Walsh, L., Freeman, O., McMahon, C., ‘Enhancing SDG Literacy through Authentic Assessment Strategies’ (Queens University Belfast Learning and Teaching Conference, Belfast, April 2022).