The complex chain of supply and demand is a billion-dollar industry. According to the ILO, this industry employs over 400 million workers annually and contributes to the growth of the globalized economy. However, the industry is largely unregulated and rift with egregious human rights violations and abuses of vulnerable workers.
The greater the demand for supply chains to sustain profit, the more they engage in labour exploitation, modern slavery, child labour, discrimination and degrading working conditions. Human rights violations in supply chains are not at the centre of global discussions.
The 2018 Global Slavery Index identified the garment supply chain as being amongst the top five industries with the biggest imports of products at risk of modern slavery. With a high demand for cheap labour and inadequately regulated supply chains, the fashion industry is rife with the most vulnerable and exploited workforces, including those who have been trafficked and trapped in forced labour.
Manufacturers are often forced to outsource work to meet production targets, and will look for the cheapest and most efficient workforces. This might mean subcontracting unregulated and unprotected workforces composed of people trafficked and coerced into unpaid labour. The more brands push for lower prices, the more they encourage exploitative working conditions.
There are an estimated 170 million children in child labour. Amongst the countries categorised as the highest risk for child labour are China, India, Bangladesh and Vietnam – four of the top clothing manufacturing countries. Children living in poverty are vulnerable to accepting exploitative, demanding and low-paid work, such as is available in supply chains. They are often contracted into unregulated factories or informally, working at home doing finishing work such as sewing sequins or buttons on clothing. Child labour is also prevalent at the very initial stages of the supply chain, with a huge number of children employed in the cotton industry. Children are desirable as their small fingers do not damage the crop.
In these workplaces, a child’s right to protection from danger, to education, and to enjoy their childhood is compromised.
Not every country has a legal minimum wage. For those that do, it is important to remember that a minimum wage is not the same as a living wage nor is it always enforceable. Monthly minimum wages in chief manufacturing countries range from $26 a month in Ethiopia to $340 a month in Turkey. According to the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, businesses have a duty to ensure living wages are paid regardless of an individual nation’s law. This means that fashion brands must take responsibility for the wages of garment manufacturers at every stage of their supply chains.
In 2019, a report found that 85 per cent of brands made a commitment to living wages, but none could provide a clear outline of how they followed through with this commitment down their supply chains.
In April 2013, thousands of garment workers were injured or killed when the Rana Plaza clothing factory collapsed in Bangladesh. The incident is reflective of the multiple rights-violations workers suffer every day, simply by going to work. Garment manufacturers are continually asked to work in environments which are physically unsafe. The Rana Plaza factory building had visible cracks in its walls, but when workers speak out and stand up for their rights, they are often silenced.
This includes workers being targeted or abused for leading or joining a labour union. Protests in Bangladesh in 2018-2019 lead to thousands of workers being dismissed and black-listed, now unable to find work again. There is often very little protection of labour rights in supply countries, meaning restrictions on working hours, protection against unfair dismissal or from working with hazardous chemicals are ignored.
Gender based discrimination is prevalent in supply chains. 80 per cent of the manufacturing workforce are women. However, within this sector, women are rarely in high-paid or managerial positions. 84 per cent of women in Bangladesh supply chains are in low paid positions. On the other hand, 95 per cent of line managers are men.
Being in subordinate positions, women are also subject to physical and sexual abuse. 1 in 7 workers said they had left their job due to harassment. Women also face discrimination for becoming pregnant. Many are forced to leave their jobs or are afraid the physical demands of the work might lead to miscarriage. Being a majority female workforce, the human rights violations suffered in the fashion industry disproportionately affect women.
Identifying these human rights violations in supply chains effective in bringing much needed awareness to a decaying system that has gone unreported in the last decade. It is a potent exercise in recognising how brands that influence consumers are complicit in perpetuating and institutionalising these unethical and inhumane practices.
Multinational corporations choose to keep these complex, poorly regulated structures in place because they profit off cheap and exploitative labour in supply countries. When we as consumers buy from companies without any human rights due diligence practice, we are further encouraging these exploitative practices. It is, therefore, our duty to uncover these abuses and hold companies to account. Through advocacy, activism and human rights literacy, we have the power to push the supply chain industry to do better, be better and implement a rights-based approach in the protection of the common man in.
