“Managers shout at us that if we join the union, we will also be sacked.”

The global garment industry has long faced scrutiny over human rights abuses in its supply chains and business model. South Asian workers, especially women, are systematically disenfranchised through informal and insecure contracts, poverty wages, discrimination and precarious work conditions.

When workers protest, they are beaten, shot at and arrested.

Taufiq*, a labour NGO worker in Bangladesh

In all four countries, garment workers said the threat of repercussions from employers prevented them from joining a union. All union organizers interviewed by Amnesty International described a climate of fear in which supervisors and factory bosses frequently harassed, dismissed and threatened workers for belonging to or organizing a union, in a clear abuse of their right to freedom of association.

“When workers raise their voices, they are ignored. When they try to organize, they are threatened and sacked. And finally, when workers protest, they are beaten, shot at and arrested,” said Taufiq*, a labour rights NGO worker in Bangladesh.

“Human rights violations are happening every day, in almost every factory”

Authorities in all four countries use numerous ways to deter workers from organizing themselves or deny them their labour rights through union busting, obstacles to the right to strike such as the specific barriers to union organizing in Special Economic Zones (SEZs) and replacing independent unions with pro-management bodies.

In Bangladesh, legal restrictions deny workers the right to freedom of association in the many SEZs where most garment production takes place. Instead, workers are encouraged to form welfare associations or committees, which have limited ability to organize and represent them. Authorities have violently repressed protests by garment workers and weaponized the law to punish workers taking part in largely peaceful protests.

In India, vast numbers of home workers in the garment industry, working outside the factory on embroidery or finishing garments, are not recognized as employees under the country’s labour laws and thus, are not eligible for pensions, other employment-related social protection benefits or union membership.

In Pakistan, garment workers face daily challenges in accessing the minimum wage and work contracts. Underpayment of wages due to a lack of proper written contracts and oversight is endemic. In addition, the devolution of labour law administration, alongside pervasive antiunion repression by the government, has led to the effective denial of the right to freedom of association for workers in SEZs.

In Sri Lanka, workers in free trade zones are denied the right to freedom of association through overly complex administrative measures which often place insurmountable barriers to forming a union. When workers do manage to unionize, they are harassed, intimidated and often dismissed due to the authorities’ failure to protect them from reprisals by factory owners.

Global fashion brands – an invaluable ally for repressive governments

Fashion companies contribute to workers’ vulnerability as they are not fulfilling their human rights responsibilities, instead turning human rights due diligence and codes of conduct into tick box exercises. They have allowed the growth of opaque supply chains and demonstrated a willingness to source labour from governments and business partners that fail to oversee and remedy poor labour practices, or which actively repress freedom of association. The lack of due diligence legislation in many countries means brands are not held to account for their supply chains, enabling an extractive and exploitative industry. Where such laws exist, their implementation and scope are still emerging.

International law and standards, including the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, require fashion companies to identify and address all human rights risks and impacts by conducting ongoing human rights due diligence throughout their supply chain. However, in most garment producing states, the lack of binding legislation has allowed the abuse of workers’ rights to become embedded in supply chains, with little meaningful action taken to address it. Moreover, the governments of countries where these global brands are headquartered have failed to take steps to prevent abuse abroad by business enterprises within their jurisdiction.

Due to a lack of transparency in global supply chains, there is little evidence to determine whether or not human rights policies are being implemented at the factory level. All 21 fashion brands and retailers surveyed had codes of conduct for suppliers, human rights policies or principles, which affirmed the company’s commitment to workers’ right to freedom of association. Despite this purported commitment to freedom of association by brands in their supply chains, Amnesty International found very few independent trade unions that were operating in the fashion companies’ supply chains in all four countries. This denial of freedom of association and collective bargaining continues to hamper efforts to prevent, mitigate and remedy human rights abuses in the supply chain.

“Access to justice is minimal generally for all women… and this is doubly so with Dalit women”

The majority of the garment industry workforce in South Asia are women, who are often rural migrants or from marginalized castes. Despite their numbers, they are under-represented in factory management, which typically reflects the patriarchal system outside the factory, as well as existing class, ethnic, religious and caste discrimination.

Female garment workers report being routinely harassed, attacked, and abused physically or sexually in the workplace. Yet they rarely get justice. The lack of effective, independent mechanisms to hear their grievances in male-led factories, combined with state-sponsored restrictions on organizing and employers’ threats against workers unionizing, means their suffering continues.

“I was touched physically and abused verbally. No one in management would listen to my complaints then I asked other women to organize. I was threatened with dismissal many times,” Sumaayaa*, a union organizer from Lahore, Pakistan, told Amnesty International.

“Freedom of association is the key to unlocking change in the industry”

As the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association summarized in his 2016 report, “Without assembly and association rights, workers have little leverage to change the conditions that entrench poverty, fuel inequality…” According to the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) Committee “trade union rights, freedom of association and the right to strike are crucial means to introduce, maintain and defend just and favourable conditions of work.”

Amnesty International is calling on states to ensure that all workers can exercise their right to freedom of association, including by being able to form and join trade unions at factory level and engage in collective bargaining. States must also investigate all potential breaches of labour law and other relevant law. Where offences are uncovered, they must penalize employers appropriately, including through prosecutions, and ensure adequate and timely remedy for affected workers.

Companies should urgently take concrete action to protect the rights of workers in their supply chains and support the empowerment of women workers. There is an urgent need for mandatory due diligence to ensure that brands hold factories throughout their global supply chain to account and crucially ensure remedy for workers who have been subjected to human rights abuses, as well as serve to prevent any future abuses.

The need of the hour is to build a human rights respecting sourcing strategy for the global garment
industry.

Agnès Callamard

“The need of the hour is to build a human rights respecting sourcing strategy for the global garment industry. One that ensures genuine freedom of association, penalizes its denial, prohibits retaliation against unions, and reconsiders sourcing from any location that denies workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining,” said Agnès Callamard.

“The economic success of the garment industry must come hand-in-hand with the realization of workers’ rights. Freedom of association is key to tackling the abuse of workers’ rights. It must be protected, advanced and championed.”

*names changed to protect identity.

Read the reports

• 
  Stitched Up: Denial of Freedom of Association for Garment Workers in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka
• 
  Abandoned by Fashion: The urgent need for fashion brands to champion worker rights

Ashila Dandeniya: Fair worker treatment for fair fashion

My first job was in the garment sector was in 2001 as a quality controller at a well-known apparel manufacturer in Colombo, Sri Lanka. I joined the sector right after completing my A-Level examinations as my family was facing financial hardships. Over time, I started speaking about the problems faced by workers from within the workers’ committee established in the factory – there wasn’t a union there. This resulted in my dismissal.

As I felt it was unfair, I filed a case against the factory. I studied the law, learned about my rights, and decided to represent myself in court… and I won!

When I received compensation, it instilled in me the belief that we can win—if we fight, we can secure our rights. As a garment sector worker, I kept intervening in issues faced by workers.  That is what led to the start of Stand Up Movement Lanka.

‘The factories fear our intervention’

When we receive reports of unfair labour practices or dismissals, we work to ensure justice. However, there is a palpable sense of fear. For example, a worker faced reprisals at her workplace for visiting our office in her uniform. That’s when we realized the factories were closely monitoring our office. Whenever a worker visits us in uniform, the factory management finds out about it by the next day.  They fear our intervention.

We work on issues relating to protection and promotion of workers’ rights. A worker in the garment sector sacrifices their life pursuing someone else’s targets, while merely dreaming of their own.

Wages are often dependent on the completion of tight targets which means that on the factory floor, team workers often become worried if anyone takes a break or slows down, even if it is to simply go to the restroom. This has led to a harmful competition that creates undue animosity among workers, as they work under pressure day in and day out. All so that they can meet company targets in a short time frame and afford their next meal. Their happiness, sadness, children’s education, and nutritional needs are all dependent on their wages.

In Sri Lanka’s Free Trade Zones, the workforce predominantly consists of young, unmarried women who have migrated from remote and underprivileged villages, living temporarily in these areas. There are also those from the LGBTQI community working within these zones. The wage scales for workers are determined by their gender. The majority of workers at the lower levels, such as machine operators, are women and their salaries are low. In positions that offer higher salaries, such as those above supervisor level, it is rare to see a woman.

There have been efforts to exploit these workers under the guise of providing flexibile working arrangements. This has led to an increasing informalization of the sector and reduction in working hours while still expecting workers to meet their targets. They are also seeing their various benefits cut, wages reduced and are being pushed deeper into poverty. This unfortunate situation is not endemic to Sri Lanka’s garment sector alone but is rooted in global issues.

‘The fight for workers’ rights is a regional struggle’

We often work closely with similar regional civil society organizations and trade unions and have noticed that garment workers are often exploited in a similar manner everywhere. Therefore, we believe our struggle to improve the lives of workers must be carried out at a regional level, and we must fight together for it.

The governments must bear the responsibility to formulate basic principles to uplift the lives of the garment workers. Instead, they disregard workers’ needs and focus on investors when formulating their policies and legal frameworks. This signals to the factories that exploitative practices are acceptable as long as they bring investments into the country.

Global fashion brands too have a greater responsibility to ensure they are not linked to any abuses. To do so, the brands should take the initiative to ensure workers make a living wage or that gender rights are protected on the factory floors with which they do business, even if indirectly. To follow through on their commitment to human rights, these brands have to look into where they are sourcing labour from and say ‘NO’ to countries that do not enable trade unions and uphold labour rights until these changes take place. This is level of engagement can truly make a difference in our lives.

We often notice that people seem to feel good when they wear fashionable clothes, but behind that satisfaction lies the sacrifice, blood, sweat, and tears of countless workers, which is frequently forgotten. I urge everyone to reflect on this when they wear clothes and ask themselves if they know where and how their clothes are made, and whether they can truly feel happy about wearing them.

We need solidarity for this change to happen. If we join hands, together we can win this struggle for the rights of garment workers — sign our petition now.