Arukshita Jain
Think about putting on your favourite outfit; it could be anything from the latest couture to your comfiest clothes. You feel good when you wear them, probably sometimes think about how good this cloth is and perhaps even wonder how it was made. But does your mind ever wonder who made it? Sure the designer, but the designer cut and wove and stitch thousands of pieces of this garment. I am sure you know the answer is no for that because it’s the garment workers/ labourers who are the real heroes behind your favourite piece of cloth. Fashion and textile involve millions of people. This article aims to highlight not only the problems that labourers face but also to suggest methods that any designer, brand, or factory owner can use to help provide better conditions so that garment workers working under them need not unionise, avoiding any kind of conflict and ensuring a smooth supply chain to their customers.
Labourers put clothes together on sewing machine production lines. The fashion and textiles sector employs around one out of every eight people worldwide, with jobs ranging from farming and processing cotton and other fibres to the cut-make-trim stage. Workers’ experiences showed significant differences depending on whether they worked as core or contract workers at major factories, small units, or subcontract homeworkers. There are also garment producers who work for themselves and produce for local consumers or markets.
Who are these labourers?
- Homeworkers:
Females typically take paid work for brands or designers from their homes, usually on a piece-rate basis. Males perform some of the higher-skilled duties such as cutting and those who have more opportunities to learn new skills, have pushed women out of the clothing industry when products require higher technical abilities.
- Contract Labourers:
They are hired to work at a firm through a contractor for a set amount of time for a specific job; they are not company employees.
- Migrant Workers:
Immigrants and migrants make up a large portion of the workforce in clothing factories. Workers migrated from rural areas to metropolitan areas, but now they cross borders to pursue a job.
- Forced Labourers:
In a recent Amnesty International investigation, based on first-hand testimony, we understand that detailed mass incarnation and systematic torture of Uighur Muslims in China prevails. Some instances describe Uighurs being “forced to live and work in a factory.”
In general, there are three methods through which workers are recruited:
(1) direct hiring by the employer,
(2) labour contractors or staffing agencies,
(3) informal hiring through personal relationships.
(4) Providers of vocational skills training.
The fashion industry has expanded dramatically in recent decades as consumer demand for lower-cost clothes and greater variety has developed. Firms in developed countries outsource garment production to developing countries to keep prices down and output levels high, while developing countries transfer production within and between nations to locate the lowest labour.
Garment factories in India are concentrated in a few destination cities such as Delhi/NCR, Bengaluru, Tirupur, Chennai, and Mumbai; most of the workers employed there are migrants from other locations, primarily rural areas, and they come from low-income backgrounds and have little education. Many of them are from India’s disenfranchised and socially excluded Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Classes. They have been stigmatised and discriminated against for a long time. Inevitably, they are overrepresented in low-wage positions with terrible working conditions, few career possibilities, and, in some cases, gender-based violence. Let’s have a closer look at what kind of other problems do these workers face.
Wages are low, and there are no benefits
Most garment and textile sector homeworkers are paid by the piece (based on how many they make), earn very little, and are not paid for working overtime. Sick leave and paid vacations are not available to the majority of employees. Workers in the fashion industry get wages that keep them in poverty worldwide. They make minimum wage or little more, which is insufficient to meet their fundamental necessities for themselves and their family (food, housing, transportation, utilities, education, and so on).
Issues with Infrastructure
Electricity shortages and load-shedding have severely impacted the lives of textile workers. Due to the high cost and unreliability of energy, garment workers were forced to use manual sewing machines, which resulted in lower-quality items. For home-based workers too tiny or insufficient housing is a severe issue. A small residence reduces productivity since a worker cannot accept large work orders because she does not have enough space to store raw materials. Competing demands of other home tasks also hamper work. When roofs leak or dwellings flood, equipment, raw materials, and completed goods are destroyed.
Problem with Transport
Labourers concerns about transportation have also surfaced. Increased public transportation expenses and travel distances influence the profitability of their businesses since they must travel to get raw materials and deliver manufactured items.
Safety and Health Hazards
Unfortunately, workers are unlikely to have adequate protective gear and may be uninformed of safety precautions. Repetitive strain, dust from cloth pieces, and, in the case of particular colours, exposure to hazardous chemicals are all health dangers in the garment industry. Due to shared living and working space, family members may equally be exposed. Backaches and eye strain are common among garment workers.
Working Overtime
The clothing industry employs people who work exceptionally long hours. Excessive overtime is a problem that plagues the industry. Workers often have little choice but to work overtime regularly to augment poor regular income to make ends meet. Factory managers also require overtime to deal with surges in production demand. Extended hours are harmful to workers’ health and well-being and increase accidents and injuries.
Short-term contracts
They are prevalent in this sector. These contracts are a source of dangerous, insecure work that limits workers’ ability to exercise their rights, in order to associate and bargain collectively. Retaliation against leaders of autonomous, democratic trade unions is expected in this sector, as are violations of the right to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Gender Discrimination & Sexual Harassment
Women who work as textile workers are vulnerable and suffer various issues, including those listed above. In truth, for some women working in the garment business, bonded labour is a reality. Young females who work so early and drop out of school to support their families are paid less than the legal minimum wage and are subjected to a variety of sexual and physical abuse.
Creche Rules remain unenforced and unimplemented
Creche is a nursery for children whose mothers work at a specific location. In India, guidelines have been introduced as an amendment to the Maternity Benefit Act 2017. This amendment ignores the physical and monetary costs of sending the children from one place to another workplace, reducing the adoption of the measures. Working hours and the capacity of onsite creches are other concerns that the amendment appears to have missed when women commute great distances to their professions. Employers have yet to begin considering implementation.
All of these issues show us how unfair the lives of labourers in the fashion industry are; they do not deserve the conditions imposed on them by their work. Everyone works for a living, and while there are struggles, if your source of income becomes a place where your life is no longer suitable, it can be unfortunate to live with. This is why labourers choose to unionise: they want to make a difference in the conditions that affect their employment and livelihood. They want to see improvements in the current hazardous conditions and demand betterment.
The COVID-19 pandemic was not helpful to them either, and it negatively impacted these workers. Many labourers returned to their villages to help in wheat harvesting. It was an excellent alternative for them, but not everyone was fortunate enough to find a job; many remained unemployed for months and are still unemployed somewhere. The COVID-19 pandemic is being utilised as an excuse to fire unionised workers, undermining rights protections and exposing garment workers to more severe exploitation. As part of their due diligence, brands must engage directly and effectively with unions and worker groups when labour conflicts and reports of union-busting arise in their supply chains and work with them to support suitable remedies.
What appears on the onset is that there is no ‘loyalty’ left either. Indian garment factories have been doing a lot for the upliftment of workers for a long time. Global companies and merchants have backed the initiative as well. All of this has resulted in a ‘loyalty’ factor on the part of workers. Still given the current dire situation; it appears that this loyalty factor will no longer be influential, as workers will prioritise any work that pays them a little more money and keeps them in their comfort zones.
It is pertinent to note here that fashion and retail brands make it more difficult for factory owners to adhere to labour standards and norms by continually demanding faster turnaround times, lower prices from their suppliers , and fuelling rivalry among supplier factories. As the need for more diversity and lower-cost clothes has grown. Firms in developed countries outsource garment production to developing countries to keep prices down and output levels high, while developing countries transfer production within and between nations to locate the lowest labour. Finding the most insufficient labour means nothing but making them work overtime without any regard to their needs.
The fatal and well-known collapse of the Rana Plaza building, which housed five garment companies and killed at least 1,134 people and injured more than 2,500 others, occurred on April 24, 2013, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The ultimate calamity was caused by a variety of engineering and managerial shortcomings. Parts of the structure were built without the necessary city permissions. The building’s fifth through eighth levels was added without supporting walls. The structure could not support the heavy machinery from the clothing factory. Because it was built on swamp ground, the foundation was shaky. The building was on the verge of collapsing as the cracks widened. And, according to sources, it could have been avoided totally.
There were 44 central laws in India that are now within the ambit of the New Labour Codes 2021, which are now broadly divided into four parts The Code on Wages, 2019, The Industrial Relations Code, 2020. The Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and the Code on Social Security, 2020. Even though each of them has an intent to provide for and protect the welfare of workers, we still see disputes arise between brands and their employees, where workers form unions, stage protests, the manufacturing process is halted. Product delivery deadlines are missed, all of which result in losses. Not to mention the additional legal expenditures that the owner must bear to battle these unions because they are lawful. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if so much hassle could have been avoided if one could provide the workers with the things they deserve? They also have a family and personal health to look at, so in no way them unionising is a bad thing because they are speaking for their fundamental rights, which they are entitled to simply by being a citizen of India or elsewhere but most importantly because they are a human too. But is it something which can be avoided to save money and time? Yes.
Garment workers’ unionisation is low due to the workforce’s highly unorganised and segmented nature. Wherever union activities do occur, they are immediately suppressed by management.
We need to understand that unionising is not easy. There are many occasions where battles are waged alone, making it exceedingly difficult to take forward the case, your requests, and they are never settled quickly. I took the liberty of conducting an in-depth investigation into the situation in Indian law when such issues arise in the fashion sector, and the following are some of my findings.
In one instance, the government took unions’ side and helped them before unionising. Look at Management Ambattur Fashion India Pvt Ltd v. Government of Tamil Nadu 2020; due to the COVID 19 Pandemic, there was a significant drop in customer orders, and workers were unable to report due to lockdown. Therefore, very rational layoff permission was granted to avoid additional costs under section 25-M of the Industrial Disputes Act 1947. However, the Tamil Nadu government refused such layoffs because the COVID pandemic is not an acceptable reason for granting permission for layoffs. If it were, the department would be inundated with similar unnecessary requests from all corners of the state, making it unmanageable and detrimental to workers’ interests.
In another case, Management of M/s. GG Fashion v. Jayanti Negi 2006, where the labour court held that the aggrieved party’s employment was illegally terminated, the fashion brand management filed a writ petition in Delhi High Court challenging the same and claiming that the worker was gainfully employed and did not need any interim wages at the time of pendency of such suits proceedings, however, no evidence was found in support of that and it was shown that the worker is not having any means to support herself, the court directed the management of GG fashion to grant interim wages during the pendency of the challenged under section 17B of the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 which advocates the same.
Similar Facts are observed in the Fashion Exim India Pvt Ltd v. Chintamani Ambolker and another, 2005. The Bombay high court held that what the labour court concluded in its finding is correct and that no interference is required from the higher court’s side.
In Fashion Production Mazdoor Sabha, Bombay v. Smt. Smita Prabhakar Dalvi and others, 1985 held that individual employees or employees could not initiate proceedings for cancellation of recognition of a union while delivering the judgement. The court also observed the importance of the trade union act and how it gives recognition and protection from criminal liability to these unions. It also highlighted that no union should be recognised if the interest is not made bona fide for its employees but is formed to further the employers’ interest.
When we see all these cases mentioned above, we notice that every state has its own set of guidelines for labour laws and trade unions which is a step towards recognising the different cultures these workers come from, as each state has its own set of working conditions, as well as supporting with the jurisdictional issue.
The three key parties in the garment sector supply chain—governments, suppliers or factories, and brands—must take individual and collective actions to give migrant workers a life of dignity, security, and recognition at their workplaces. Labour reforms must replace unilateral decision-making with a threefold (government, labour, and employers) collaborative system for dealing with employer and labour concerns. To facilitate the adoption of safe and responsible migration, the government must actively collaborate with factories.
Big fashion giants should publicly join together and pledge to defend human rights across their entire supply chain. Brands should consider the human costs of pressuring manufacturers to produce more for less money and promote improved working conditions. They must also invest collectively in factory systems to improve working conditions and incentivise better practices. All of this does not apply solely to employers of garment workers; every employer must ensure that no infraction of any kind occurs while they are in charge.
Here are some tips for employers in the fashion sector based on what we’ve seen so far.
- Prohibit discrimination against unionised workers to promote freedom of association. Brands must review all layoffs proposals to ensure that workers are not discriminated against.
- Identify the challenges that your employees are encountering, conduct a survey, speak with them, and collaborate with them or with NGOs designed explicitly for this purpose if necessary to ensure that you know where your employees stand.
- Any law or contract clauses about labour rights should be translated and made available to factory workers, who are ideally qualified to comprehend and ensure they are followed. Inform your workers about policy changes, if any.
- Have an open forum and make sure that you take time out of their schedule to make them aware of their rights and tell them that it is entirely acceptable for them to approach any grievance.
- One can also donate independent third-party labour rights training to guarantee that workers in supply chains are aware of their rights and exercise them.
- Even if a dispute arises after all of this, it is crucial to take an active and transparent part in discussions between suppliers and workers in industrial disputes. Seek the reinstatement of wrongly fired union members and leaders, and do it ahead of time, even if there is no pressure from the worldwide labour movement or consumers.
Whether you are a designer with your label, a homegrown or multinational brand, or a factory owner under a brand, whether you have a few employees or a large number of employees, you must protect your workers from unfair practices and ensure that they have access to all primary working conditions; otherwise, no clothes are worth anything if they are produced after someone has been exploited. The choice is yours.
