FASHION
Image:
Demonstrations in Sri Lanka, courtesy of AFWA.
Eight years
after the Rana Plaza disaster, the world's leading fashion companies have yet
to agree to renew their long-term security agreement in Bangladesh. techsupportreviews Yet, for
all the potential benefits, companies like Zara and H&M are held back by
their direct responsibilities. So far, only five of the original signers have
signed, and the deadline is August 31st.
Brands'
indecision over participation has highlighted supplier responsibilities in
other parts of Asia, where an ambitious labor rights group is trying to hold
global brands accountable for alleged rights violations during the pandemic.
Stealing
wages
In a report
first published by the British newspaper The Guardian, the Asia Floor Wage
Alliance (AFWA) is suing global fashion companies, including H&M and
Levi's, for “stealing wages” of supply chain workers during the coronavirus pandemic.
H&M is cited
in connection with alleged abuses in the world of work in 2020 at a supplier
plant, where AFWA claims the brand "has complete economic control over
workers' livelihoods, skills and continuity of employment."
The AFWA report
claims that most garment workers in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, India,
Cambodia and Bangladesh have lost money they were legally entitled to. He
argues that the businesses these workers employ do not act as independent
suppliers, but as contract manufacturers, and that brands receiving supplies
from them should be treated as joint employers and held accountable.
The
devastating effect of Covid-19 on vestment workers
In a report
entitled “The Money Robbery,” the author asks whether the loss of income
suffered by garment workers should be classified as theft of wages by the
brands for which they manufacture the garments. AFWA explains that in the
current situation, garment workers are working to produce clothing for various
brands in the Global North. However, these brands do not use them directly.
Rather, workers are hired by suppliers from across the Global South. However,
these suppliers are not independent manufacturers who manufacture the garment
and sell it to the global market. They are more like contract manufacturers.
They manufacture clothing according to the designs and specifications provided
by the brands.
Billionaire
brands fall short
AFWA argues that
if brands are the primary employers for supplier factory workers, they should
be responsible for supporting suppliers and their workers during a recession,
taking steps to maintain the value of their shares, including through buybacks.
action. However, the brands have refused to take on or share any responsibility
with suppliers or their employees.
At the start of
the pandemic, some brands refused to pay suppliers for orders already
delivered, a move they only abandoned after international media coverage
threatened to damage their reputation. This had a domino effect, as some suppliers
did not pay workers' wages. Contractors even turned off their phones to prevent
workers from demanding payment, according to the report.
AFWA argues that
business risks have shifted to suppliers in the global South and, in turn, to
their workers. While supplier owners were likely able to cover their savings,
workers 'incomes were even below the poverty line, and women workers' incomes
were even below this threshold.
The Covid-19
pandemic has exposed an undeniable truth about extreme labor exploitation, which
is an important feature of global apparel supply chains. The humanitarian
crisis hitting garment workers in Asia due to the recession caused by the
pandemic was neither unexpected nor inevitable. Rather, it was a direct moment
of the actions of global clothing brands located in the Global North, which
reap the profits from exploiting workers in "an uneven system of regional
and national development, [and] an uneven and segmented labor souk."
Currently, the the minimum wage in producing realms is set at an extremely low level, which does
not cover the cost of living, which, according to the Asian Alliance of the
minimum wage, is at least three times.
Brands must be held accountable
Accountability deficiencies in the current structure of
global apparel supply chains have precluded the agency of workers and their
unions to hold brands accountable. AFWA wants to reestablish this agency,
bring unions into direct contact with brands, and claim responsibility within
the jurisdictional scope of their countries.
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