Posts Tagged ‘International Textile Garment and Leather Workers’ Federation’

Excessively long work hours are still universal in garment manufacturing

Posted: August 23, 2011 in Responsible business, Rights around the world
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Overworked Student

*Third and final post in a series unpacking the ITGLWF‘s report into garment workers’ conditions in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the Philippines

I have a copy of a brochure printed here in Sydney in the early 1890s, titled “A Few Facts concerning the Hours Worked by Shop Assistants”. It was published by a group calling itself the Early Closing Association of N.S.W. (the present-day shop assistants’ union was not formed until 10 years later).

It recounts that Sydney’s shop assistants were often required to work 76 hours a week. An example real-life roster:

Mon-Thu:  7am – 9pm

Friday:  7am – 9.30pm

Saturday: 7am – 11pm

Concerned shoppers in Sydney can now relax in the knowledge that the people from whom their goods are obtained can (and usually do) refuse to work over 40 hours per week and must be paid extra for work outside of daytime, weekdays.

…or can they?

Alas. The people who sewed the garments that you buy often have no such guarantees. They work 50-80 hour weeks either because they are made to or because the wages for a 40 hour week are simply not enough to live on. The ITGLWF’s recent report into the garment industry found that it is the norm in for garment workers in developing nations to work overtime; at least 2 hours a day.

It is not accurate to call this work “overtime” – the workers are in fact required to work 70 hour weeks for minimal pay, something that people in the developed world – the people buying those jeans, T-shirts and sweaters – would consider Dickensian.

Some examples:

  • In one Indonesian factory, 40 workers were locked in an unventilated room with no toilet for three hours as punishment for failing to meet production targets
  • In 2002 Sri Lanka amended the law relating to overtime, dropping the word “voluntary” from its definition(!)
  • 6% of surveyed workers in the Philippines received no compensation at all for working overtime, while a further 18% received less than they were legally entitled to

Even if workers were given a genuine choice to work less hours, few of them are in a position to accept the offer. The wages for a 40 hour week barely cover the cost of living for a single person. When you add the cost of supporting either one’s own family or siblings back home, the extra hours are essential. It would be nice to spend some time with those family members though.

Article 24 of the Universal Declaration of human rights states:

Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours

Clearly the workers’ advocates in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and elsewhere have their work cut out for them.

Lend a hand

Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) defends garment workers’ rights in developing nations. You can give immediate assistance to their work in one of two ways:

  1. Send a message of concern directly to the world’s five largest retailers
  2. Donate to CCC to support their work

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Posts on FairForAll covering other aspects of the ITGLWF report:

The uphill battle against temporary employment

Posted: July 20, 2011 in Rights around the world
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Worker dormitories on Indonesia's Batam Island. Photo © 2011

Workforce casualisation is regarded, in the developed world, as a phenomenon that has come about to the benefit of employers and at least *some* employees who are in situations where it suits to keep their options open.

In the developing world, however, it is a different story.

The scenario commonly goes like this:

  1. Young person grows up in rural area of developing nation.
  2. Family needs more money, often to send younger siblings to school, and there is no rural work available.
  3. Youth travels to factory area (often a Exports Processing Zone, where there is less tax and red tape) to work either in light manufacturing if female or construction if male.
  • Alternatively, they might move to another country altogether, e.g. Indonesians to Saudi Arabia, Indians to the UAE, Filipinos to Hong Kong. It is common in this scenario for women to work as domestic workers (i.e. maids).
  1. Migrant youth lives in employer-provided dorm and works long hours 6 days a week. After paying their living expenses they send (‘remit’) what remains to their family.

There are millions of people living this story right now, making your household goods including the PC or other device on which you are reading this.

Weak bargaining position

There are a tidal wave of people seeking to work in these jobs. As they hurl themselves upon the local job market, the last thing in the world they are going to do is jeopardise their job-seeking chances by making unusual demands. The alternative is to make a living by even more precarious means such as garbage-picking.

They usually remain in these jobs for about five years and have every reason to ask for permanent employment, but they rarely get it. They are offered contract employment which must be renewed every year or so.

By the time they are in their early to mid twenties the formerly rural workers are too old(!) – the younger ones can work faster than they do and, moreover, they are starting to think about starting a family. Their contracts simply go unrenewed. Then they are replaced by new young workers who also do not have to support a household of their own and thus have no pressing need for higher wages.

The ITGLWF‘s recent survey of apparel factory workers found that a majority in Indonesia and a sizeable minority in the Philippines were being employed under short term contracts. Many of them are permanent employees in fact whilst only having the legal status of temporary employees, thus not receiving

  • annual leave pay,
  • sick pay,
  • termination payments, or
  • a written contract
Fortunately local unions have been having some success in organising workers in EPZs and pursuing their rights by legal means. When the law says workers must be made permanent after three years’ employment, and they are dismissed without reason after two years and eleven months’ service, it’s not hard to win the court’s sympathy.
 
Further reading
Related post

Anti-union strategies in sportswear supply chains

Posted: May 10, 2011 in Indonesia
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Fotothek df n-04 0000033

Image via Wikipedia

The global union confederation for the textile and garment industry, the ITGLWF,  represents workers in clothing manufacturing companies.

In the last fortnight they published a comprehensive report into the sportswear industry, surveying 83 factories in Sri Lanka, the Philippines and Indonesia which collectively employ over 100,000 workers.

A range of shortcomings were documented. All of them are very concerning and I don’t want to gloss over any aspect, so I might unpack this report over a series of posts.

Victimising of union activists

The first problem found was that Freedom of Association is routinely suppressed by means of harassment, bribes, failure to renew short-term contracts and even factory closure.

The right to free association is enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and also in Protocol 98 of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) which states:

all workers without distinction whatsoever, whether they are employed on a permanent basis, for a fixed term or as contract employees, should have the right to establish and join organisations of their own choosing.

Suffice to say, the ability of workers to combine interests and bargain for improved pay and working conditions hangs on the effective exercise of this right, so it is critically important in the economic development of these nations’ citizens.

Sri Lanka has ratified ILO Protocol 98. The researchers found that some companies circumvented this requirement by having the Employer Council (a non-representative body capable of being controlled by the employer) registered as a union. It therefore does not attract the usual due process protections. For example, there is no guarantee of secret ballots for representatives.

As a result union activists are – predictably – victimised and impeded in their work. If they are contract workers, which many are, they find their contracts are not renewed.

In Indonesia interference in union organising activities took a more straightforward form: organisers were denied access to office space, refused allocated time to participate in trade union activities and given unrealistically high production targets to prevent them having any time to carry out union duties.

In the Philippines, workers organising for their rights also faced employer reprisal. Employers also made use of ‘stacked’ employee representative committees. In one case a company resorted to closing a factory of 800 people instead of recognising their union – and is now facing court for doing so.

Overall, employer reprisal was the number one barrier to trade union organising, followed by use of legal red tape.