A global coalition of rights campaigners urges brands and retailers of apparel to adopt responsible purchasing practices by ring-fence labour costs in all price negotiations to facilitate payment of living wages and avoid other exploitative practices.
In a survey report, titled 'Unraveling Exploitation -- Exposing the Need for Responsible Business Laws in Fashion Supply Chains', Oxfam Australia also calls for avoiding short lead times, last-minute order changes, and other practices that create exploitative conditions.
The British-founded confederation of 21 non-governmental organisations working to end the injustice of poverty worldwide, in its report published on August 26 reveals findings on Bangladesh's main export industry in particular.
It claims to have found labour rights violations, including exploitation and child labour, across Bangladesh's garment-supply chain, mostly in informal workplaces like subcontracting and home-based production.
Drawing on more than a dozen focus group discussions and key informant interviews and surveying over 400 workers, the report narrates how the current sourcing model, from which international brands benefit, enables and sustains conditions that amount to 'modern slavery'.
The report by Oxfam Australia alerts these issues may impact many Australian fashion brands sourcing from Bangladesh, as also from two other major sources.
Globally, manufacturing, including the readymade garment industry, is recognised as a high-risk sector for such sweated labour, it says, adding that Australia's three largest garment-supplying countries -- China, Bangladesh and India -- are all classified as high-risk in this respect.
"Workers in these supply chains are exposed to various forms of exploitation, including child labour and forced labour," the report reads. With a particular focus on workers in informal workplaces, the study has found shadow system of subcontracting and home-based production where "children are employed, wages are withheld and abusive conditions are rife".
Among the key findings is "95 per cent of factory workers surveyed are paid below a living wage -- rising to 100 per cent among women".
"More than one in five workers experienced wage delays or deductions while job insecurity, coercive financial control, physical violence and verbal abuse permeate the industry," the rights coalition claims.
Almost one quarter of interviewees said fingerprint-based attendance systems were used for blacklisting.
The Bangladesh law limits overtime to two hours per day, workers, even though not directly coerced through threats or violence, often choose to exceed the legal limit "simply because their wages are too low to survive on without additional income".
"Working overtime is necessary just to meet basic needs and to repay loans incurred, as ordinary wages are not enough to live on…," the report says.
Most of the adult workers in subcontracting factories reported working "unpaid or underpaid" overtime, which was not optional -- refusals were met with threats of termination or wage deductions. These long, 12-hour days take a physical toll on workers, besides other exacting working conditions.
In Bangladesh's garment industry, subcontracting factories and home-based workers are also common, making up a significant portion of the overall supply chain and providing structural support to the whole industry, including export factories, enabling them to maintain production volume during peak times.
Other suggestions include incorporating contractual clauses prohibiting child labour, forced labour and unauthorised subcontracting and building long-term, rights-respecting partnerships prioritising suppliers that meet robust human-rights standards and foster ongoing collaboration.
Asked about the report, Fazlee Shamim Ehsan, executive president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), rebutted some of the findings, particularly labour conditions. "There is no child labour and forced labour in Bangladesh's export-oriented garment factories."
The industry leader clarifies that home-based garment is family-based stitching of garment for local communities. Mr Ehsan, also president of Bangladesh Employers' Federation, says such entities do not come under their jurisdiction.
Regarding subcontracting, Mr Ehsan says if such units are members of BGMEA or BKMEA, they have responsibility. They have not received any such report of violation of labour rights and "will act accordingly once receive".
He also claims that none is forced to do overtime.
He deplores that some NGOs do prepare such reports the findings of which they never share with the relevant trade bodies.
Munni_fe@yahoo.com
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