A Sore Lack of Labour Rights in Clothing Manufacturing
The labour rights of the human beings manufacturing our clothes are not often known to us while we browse the shop racks.
It’s important for us as consumers who seek to purchase ethically produced clothing to look further than the claims of big fashion brands and retail stores and into the conditions under which the shirts, shoes, and pants themselves are produced.
International Labour Rights
There are several basic international labour rights that have been agreed on by industrialised countries. These include freely chosen employment (not slavery), paying a living wage (enough money to live on), employment security, safe and healthy working conditions, fair working hours, voluntary (not forced) overtime, freedom from discrimination, abuse, and harassment, freedom to defend against any such abuses, and freedom to seek to improve labour rights through freedom of association, joining unions, and collective bargaining.
Unfortunately, we can’t always see upfront which manufacturers uphold these labour rights. Transparency is sorely lacking on points like fair pay, non-excessive working hours, and safe working conditions.
Even though it is decreasing (slowly), modern-day slavery remains rampant. It still affects over 30 million people. Many products sold in Australian stores have been produced under unconscionable conditions of worker exploitation for hundreds of common products.
Working Hours and Wages
Long working hours and forced overtime – up to 18 hours a day, 7 days a week – is the norm in many garment factories during peak season. In most cases, rest is not allowed except for meal breaks.
At factories where overtime is optional, wages are too low for employees to refuse the opportunity. With pay at around 2 dollars a day, workers must embrace long hours to make a living.
Most garment workers earn wages well below their countries’ set poverty levels. When suppliers, brands, and retailers cut prices, it’s the workers’ wages that suffer, leaving these already poor people to bear the brunt of greed.
The executives of those companies often get bonuses for reducing costs. They reduce costs by making working conditions even harsher. If your clothes seem amazingly cheap, it’s probably because human workers are being abused for profit.
To give specific examples from Labour Behind the Label:
- Women seamstresses in El Salvador factories earn US29 cents for each US$140 Nike NBA jersey. A living wage would be US58 cents per shirt, which is still a measly sum compared to the retail price of the jersey.
- Chinese production workers get a government wage of US64 cents an hour if they work 40 hours a week. However, 60- to 100-hour work weeks are common in China. This means that they actually get only US42 cents an hour.
Most companies insist that they are paying workers in their supply chains either minimum wage or the industry standard in the country. However, government-defined minimum wages are often far below the countries’ poverty thresholds and never amount to a living wage – what is necessary to sustain life and plan for the future. There’s just so much competition – fueled by greed – for governments to institute fair minimum wages and still retain business.
Union Labour Rights
Homeworkers, who are usually paid per piece they produce, are not offered the same living wage and trade union rights as in-factory workers. The garment industry is using workarounds such as long-term temporary contracts versus permanent employment to get around the already low minimum wages and labour rights mandated by law.
Working from home can be better than commuting to a workplace, but not when employers refuse them permanent employment and allow home-based work simply to avoid normal legal obligations or to divide the workforce so that they cannot unite in their demands for fair treatment.
Very often even temporary contracts are not issued, and workers feel too intimidated to ask for them. When they are given, employers too easily abuse their power and do not honour terms.
Trade unions rarely exist and are not at all encouraged. Documentation may exist, such as trade union recognition agreements, procedures for the avoidance of disputes, and regular collective bargaining procedures. However, work continues in an atmosphere of fear regardless of this framework for labour standards and codes of conduct.
Workers simply do not have the confidence to exercise their labour rights without fear of persecution or job loss.
To make matters worse, most multi-stakeholder initiatives (ETI, Fair Labor Association, MFA Forum) are powerless to effect change and ensure that labour rights are enforced. Nothing is stopping producers signing up to these initiatives and then going back to the same old shitty, abusive practices.
What LEAF is Doing
Legit Ethical AF Clothing has partnered with a small, family-owned factory in Bali, Indonesia, to manufacture our clothes. There are seven workers in the factory (all men, as it happens) who are paid a good wage and spend their time in excellent conditions with regular breaks.
We haven’t actually been able to go back to the factory since we contracted them (bloody Covid!) but we’ll post photos as soon as we can!
We know our workers’ names. We’ve eaten with them. We’ve met their kids and partners. When we can get back there, we’ll record some interviews with them so you can meet them all individually and get some of their stories.
We want you to connect with the people who make your clothes. After all, it’s your money that’ll be going into their pockets. We believe that by connecting you with the people who produce what you buy, you’ll be able to feel where your money goes.
Consumerism doesn’t have to suck a donkey’s balls. It doesn’t have to hurt people. On the contrary… it can heal. It can educate. It can bring people together. …if it’s done ethically. And we don’t just mean kind of ethically, or ethical-ish – we mean as ethical as fuck.
Final Thoughts
Labour rights in clothing manufacturing is almost a contradiction in terms. Abuse is rife. Garment workers toil in horrible conditions.
Where labour rights do exist, they are sparsely honoured and often come with harsh consequences. The reality is that workers must often deny their own rights to make a living and not even a decent one at that.
LEAF is committed to correcting these injustices and proving that fashion can, should, and must be as ethical as fuck.
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