A new report released by garment worker solidarity group and non-profit Labour Behind the Label, has exposed the increasing exploitation of garment workers in Pakistan. The document reveals details of how factories used by some of the world’s biggest fashion and sporting goods brands are routinely violating minimum wage requirements, enforcing excessive hours, ignoring health and safety concerns, and avoiding compensation for injured and killed workers.
The Hanging on by a Thread report, in collaboration with international human rights law firm and foundation Global Rights Compliance, found that the “informalisation” of worker’s jobs (employing them in less formal ways e.g., shifting them to piece rate contracts to reduce risks and cut costs) is leading to illegally low pay, mandatory unpaid overtime and the absence of secure contracts.
Over a third of workers surveyed reported being paid less than the minimum wage, equivalent to £68 (€78) a month, while nearly two thirds of workers weren’t being paid the agreed rate for enforced overtime.
Health and safety violations were also found to be endemic at the factories studied, with auditing routinely failing to identify violations and flag risks. Authors of the report also expressed extreme concern that the social auditing processes claimed to be used by many brands, seemingly completely miss these human rights violations, and furthermore brands are doing nothing to remedy the urgent situation.
Poor health and safety checks risk a repeat of previous tragedies such as the Ali Enterprises disaster, where on 11 September 2012 a garment factory in Karachi, Pakistan, burned down, killing over 250 workers, or the Rana Plaza incident in Bangladesh.
The report writers provide recommendations on how fashion brands can ensure that garment workers’ rights are upheld at their supplier factories, including:
-
Ensure health and safety for Pakistan’s garment and textile workers, by signing the Pakistan accord
-
Fix monitoring and complaints mechanisms by installing effective worker driven complaints mechanisms in suppliers and improving and publishing audit reports
-
Ensure the minimum wage is paid for all workers and adopt progressive policies that work towards payment of a living wage
-
Ensure health and safety for Pakistan’s garment and textile workers, by signing the Pakistan accord
The release date comes in the same week as a report from ActionAid, which claims Cambodian garment workers are left to languish below the poverty line.
Image source: Home-Based Women Worker’s Federation via Labour Behind the Label
