British department store group Marks & Spencer has unveiled a new plan to ensure that the textile workers who work in the factories where the group s apparel is manufactured are paid a fair and livable wage.

Earlier this month, M&S confirmed its ongoing commitment to achieving its sustainable goals outlined in its Plan A scheme, which is set to continue until 2020. In addition to ensuring its workers are paid a fair and livable wage, the group Plan A addresses climate change, waste issues, and use of natural resources.

M&S aims to introduce a new scheme which will ensure that apparel suppliers which the group sources its garment from are able to pay their textile works a fair, living wage starting. The process is set to begin M&S s suppliers in Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka and is set to being paying fair wages by 2015.

The British department store group states that it has already created a procurement tool which is able to take into account a fair and livable wage when calculating the cost price for its garments. However, to make sure textile factories use the buying tool and paying out fair wages, M&S has entered into a series of collaborative projects with local unions.

"The first thing to say is this is absolutely still a very important part of what we do," explained Krishan Hundal, director of general merchandise at M&S to Just-Style, who believes that fair wages are one of the most challenging goals for the group to achieve.

"We started in 2008, we did a couple of pilots in Bangladesh and through two years of learning we came up with a process we believed could be applied to our factories around the world." In addition to a living wage, M&S aims to have 50 percent of all the cotton sourced for the group to be sourced sustainable by 2020.