Clean Clothes Campaign weekly blog: the workers behind the industry

This blog aims to collect weekly information about the conditions of garment workers around the world; wage disputes, risks to their safety at work, discrimination, the impact of the cost of living, and how COVID-19 is influencing garment workers' rights in supply chains around the world. It will be updated as new information comes in from media and the Clean Clothes Campaign global network. Information is posted as it comes in from the network and cannot always be double-checked.

26 March 2020

Global: The International Apparel Federation calls for solidarity in supply chains. In a statement the IAF says: "No buyer can be expected to sacrifice its own existence or the jobs of its employees to save its suppliers. But collaboratively searching for ways to reduce the damage to suppliers is not only an urgent need, but feasible. Solidarity in the face of this crisis means collaborating with industry members to bridge the income gap for workers and the demand gap for business. Operating with the objective of moving as much of the pain upstream in the supply chain will create breaches of trust that will be difficult to repair when we emerge from this crisis, IAF stated. “Choices made now will be scrutinized later”, IAF secretary general Matthijs Crietee said."

India: The Indian Ministry of Textiles appeals to buying houses and buyers not cancel orders and adds that delivering schedules can be reworked, payment plans can be extended.

Pakistan: The Sindh Tripartite Committee for Implementation of Labour Laws has asked employers in the province to implement the government orders of payment of salaries to all their staff during the lock down period and is monitoring the payment of wages and the ban on dismissal of workers during this period.

Sri Lanka: Dabindu collective reports that workers of the Katunayake Free trade Zone have been on lock down, unable to return to their home towns. There are around 82 companies in the Katunayake Free trade Zone and they provide service to signature brands such as Gap, H&M, Marks and Spencer, Tommy Hilfiger, Decathlon and Victoria's Secret. The majority of these workers are women and they reside in the boarding houses with their children. It has been estimated that there are about 20,000 workers are on lock down in these boarding houses. As the rooms in these boarding houses could accommodate 10-100 people, they live as groups. These workers use the same limited number of common lavatories and the public well. As the services of the garment factories were considered to be an essential service, the workers were forced work up until the moment the lock down was announced irrespective of their protest. The due date to pay their debts (used to pay for food) has expired and shops suffer from scarcity of essential grocery items. The police estimates that there are about 10,000 Man Power Agency workers. These workers have not received their daily payments and in have lost their jobs. Dabindu collective urges the Board of Investment, the Labour Department and the companies to provide these workers with requirements of food and medicine, make sure they receive their salary advances, provide them with health care, ensure that the shops have the essentials.

The latest news coming in from the CCC network is that workers who are on lock down in Katunayake are asked to gather in-front of the BOI premises tomorrow (27 March 2020) at 6.00 AM to go back to their places of origin. They will be transported with the help of the Military.

25 March 2020

Global: News keeps on coming in from around the world that brands are cancelling orders putting the livelihood of millions of workers at risk and factory owners associations calling upon brands to take responsibility and uphold orders or help solve the crisis.

Bangladesh: The IndustriALL Bangladesh Council, in which a large group of unions cooperate, has issued a press release after conducting an emergency meeting: "At present, due to Coronavirus the whole world including Bangladesh is in fear. In current situation Bangladesh is also at risk. Considering the overall situation in today’s emergency meeting IBC agreed on that,

Until the situation gets in control all the factories including garments should announce leave with pay.
In this hazardous situation no worker can be retrenched or terminated.
If any worker gets sick or get infected all required measure relating to his/her proper treatment and safety must be ensured.
Rationing system must be introduced for the workers.
No factory should close or go into layoff without paying workers wages and dues.
In emergency situation the government must provide cash support to the workers.
Under the leadership of Labour Ministry tripartite monitoring taskforce including Government, BGMEA and IBC must be established.
In this situation we are requesting buyers not to cancel any order."

Trade union federation BIGUF has sent a letter to the employers' organization BGMEA in response to the closure of the factories without mentioning proper provisions of for workers, calling for paid leave, medical assistance and ensuring food security for the workers.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has announced a bailout package for export-oriented industries to fight the impact of coronavirus on the country's economy.

Cambodia: The Garment Manufacturers Association in Cambodia (GMAC) has called for collaboration from all stakeholders in facing the critical situation caused by Covid-19 pandemic calling upon brands not to cancel orders.

Cambodia is tracing migrant workers that returned to Thailand before the borders closed. Dy The Hoya, a programme officer at labour rights group Central, called on the government to ensure other migrant workers who could not return home are being taken care of in Thailand during this difficult time: “I hope the government will cooperate with Thai authorities to disseminate preventative measures against the COVID-19 disease to the workers and arrange to help them to continue staying in Thailand although their visas have expired,” he said. “The arrangement should also cover illegal migrant workers.”

Sri Lanka: CCC network organization FTZ-GSEU reports that almost all factories and offices have been closed except essential services. Most of the factories in the Free Trade Zones were opened until the declaration of a curfew despite earlier government requests to close. Some factory workers even went on strike demanding closure of their factories for health reasons. Because factories stayed open until the declaration of the curfew most of the workers could not travel to their villages. As a result they are stranded at their boarding houses near the Free Trade Zones. As they are still waiting for their monthly salary they do not have enough money to meet their needs. FTZ-GSEU wrote a letter to the Minister of Labour requesting him to intervene immediately by taking the following measures.

1. To advise to the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) to supply food rations to boarding houses as they are the in charge of administrations of
Free Trade Zones.

2. To advice the companies to remit the salaries of these employees to their bank accounts immediately.

3. To advice through BOI to employers / Man Power Agencies to give Advanced payment to their employees.

FTZ-GSEU and the Women Center have launched a limited programme to provide food rations to the Free Trade zones employees. These boarding houses have up to 50 workers in each house without appropriate facilities. FTZ-GSEU raised this with the top level of the government and put up a video on social media requesting employees to contact the union if they need any assistance.

The weekly blog is currently under review and we will update you in due course. If you have any comments on the live blog, please email: po at cleanclothes.org.

Friday 1 July

Asia: A new report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) highlights trends in employment, wages and productivity the Asian garment, footwear and textiles industry.

Asia remains the garment factory of the world, yet the sector faces an array of challenges many of which have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new ILO report.

Employment, wages and productivity in the Asian garment sector: Taking stock of recent trends reviews employment, wages and labour productivity in the Asian garment sector over the 2010-19 period. It highlights how the industry still accounts for 55 per cent of global textiles and clothing exports and employs some 60 million workers.

Bangladesh: Media report that leaders of the Garment Workers Trade Union Centre on Friday called upon the factory owners to pay wage and festival allowance of the garment workers before Eid–ul-Adha.

The union's president Mantu Ghosh called on the government and the garment factory owners to pay wage and festival allowance of the workers before Eid-ul-Azha.

He also asked to form a wage board to revise the wages of garment workers Tk 20,000 per month and give 50 per cent dearness allowance before implementation of next wage board.

General secretary of the organisation Joly Talukder said that the garment workers were low paid and so they could not run their families amid price hike of the essential commodities.

Cambodia: Media report that a truck transporting garment workers to their factory flipped onto its side in the southwestern Kampong Speu province on Saturday 25th June, leaving 27 people wounded, a senior police officer said.

Media report that the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training has stated that the minimum wage negotiations for textiles, garments and footwear for 2023 will start from July of this year.

European Union: Media report on whether the EU’s mandatory due diligence law cover just 1% of businesses.

As a key figure behind the European Parliament’s push for mandatory corporate sustainability due-diligence legislation, Dutch politician Lara Wolters believes the time of “I didn’t know” is over.

If adopted, the law would require EU and non-EU companies of a certain size and net turnover to take responsibility for human rights and environmental abuses that may occur in their supply chains, administrative and civil liabilities included.

Wolters credits the work of human-rights and environmental campaigners for pushing the conversation to its tipping point. “I think it’s a bit like throwing stones into a river,” she said. “You won’t see the stones at first but at some point, you’ve created a bridge. And I think that we’re at a point now where civil society and NGOs have done a lot of that work for us to be able to walk over the bridge.”

Myanmar: Media report that at around 3:15 a.m. local time on June 25, a fire broke out in a garment factory in the Dagon Port Industrial Zone, Yangon, Myanmar. According to witnesses, the fire was so large that almost the entire factory was caught in flames. No injures have been confirmed or reported.

Turkey: Media report on child labour in Istanbul. Especially in İkitelli, where textile workshops are concentrated, where Syrian children work intensively in workshops, as well as Turkish children. For Media, a 15-year-old, one day passes like this: “I wake up at 7 every day, then I come here [to the factory]. We start work at 8.30. I leave work at 8 pm. I work an average of 10-11 hours. I'm so bored here. I was very tired of textiles and working.”

USA: Media report that the US fashion industry is urging the European Union (EU) to take on board lessons learned in the US as it prepares to introduce legislation to ban the sale of products made with forced labour in the single market.

Four major trade bodies - the American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA), National Retail Federation (NRF), Retail Industry Leaders (RILA), and US Fashion Industry Association (USFIA) - have combined with the US-based Joint Association Forced Labor Working Group to share their views with the EU.

The EU has been consulting on its plans to introduce new legislation which would follow similar moves in the US, such as the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA), to ban imports of products made with forced labour.

Vietnam: Media report that 1,025 workers in Hanoi's textile and garment industry trained in fire prevention and fighting for their rights. The Executive Committee of the Grassroots Trade Union of Dai Nghia Garment Export Co., Ltd (belonging to the Hanoi Textile and Garment Industry Union) coordinated with the Board of Directors and the Hanoi Police Department to organize training on fire prevention and fighting for 1,025 union members and employees.

Information and campaigns

General info on COVID-19 in the garment industry

PayYourWorkers campaign

Resources

Demands, recommendations, proposals

CCC list of demands upon brand and retailers.

Global union and employer joint call to action.

WRC and MHSSN safety recommendations.

ILO's COVID-19 business resilience guides for suppliers.

The Circle has created a guide for suppliers in the garment industry on 'force majeure'.

Information trackers

WRC's brand tracker on which brands pay for orders

Business and Human Rights Resource Centre maintains a continually updated live-resource of articles on the influence of COVID19 on supply chains and is tracking brand responses to the crisis in dealing with their orders.

Business and Human Rights Resource Centre's created a COVID-19 Action Tracker, monitoring industry responses, government actions and workers’ demands.

Labour Start collects materials coming in from trade unions around the world.

The International Trade Union Confederation collects trade union news on the COVID-19 crisis.

ICNL has a civic freedom tracker.

Omega research foundation tracks excessive use of force by law enforcement during the pandemic.

HRDN resource on business, human rights, digital rights and privacy.

Background and position papers

WRC's white-paper "Who will bail out the workers?"

WRC and Penn State University on cancelled orders in Bangladesh "Abandoned?"

OECD's paper on COVID-19 and responsible business conduct.

ECCHR policy paper "Garment Industry in intensive care?"

ECCHR, SOMO and Pax paper on responsible business relationships.

AFWA's paper The emperor has no clothes.