News - 2023

Femal textil workers in a huge factory hall

© CIVIDEP, India

What changes await workers, brands & suppliers in readymade garment sector: Karnataka Factories Act Amendments

In the Indian state of Karnataka, with its textile industry stronghold Bengaluru, drastic changes to an important labor law are about to be implemented. The so-called Factories Bill 2023, Karnataka Amendment replaces a previously applicable standard. Important labor law achievements such as the abolition of night shifts or the introduction of the 8-hour day are to be repealed. The amended law is intended to give suppliers more leeway to respond more flexibly to order situations. The labor rights organization Cividep expects a significant deterioration in working conditions for thousands of female employees.

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First complaint case filed under German Supply Chain Act

Joined press release by FEMNET, NGWF and ECCHR

Bonn/Berlin. "10 years after Rana Plaza, there are still factories in Bangladesh producing clothes for international corporations like Amazon, IKEA or Tom Tailor, where there are hardly any safety checks. We can no longer accept this," says Amirul Haque Amin, president and co-founder of the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF).

FEMNET, ECCHR and NGWF file the first complaint on the basis of the Supply Chain Act which came into force in January 2023 with the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control. The complaint is based on a research conducted in Bangladesh in March 2023 by the trade union National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF), which identified safety deficiencies such as a lack of inspections, but also other labor rights violations such as a lack of freedom of association.

#OhMyG*OSH! First issue of the G*OSH newsletter on gender-equitable occupational health and safety.

Gender equity and occupational health and safety need to be thought together, especially for textile and footwear factories where women are predominantly employed. We started implementing this with a multi-actor partnership (MAP) on gender-responsive occupational health and safety launched in December 2021. A lot has happened since then!

Factory floor in Bangalore, India

© FEMNET

A voice for workers

This article was originally published 10th November 2022 on the site of the Bundeskanzler-Helmut-Schmidt-Stiftung.

Around 60 to 75 million people work in the textile and garment industry worldwide. The majority of them are women who work and live in strongly patriarchal societies such as Bangladesh or India. Supported by trade unions, only few of them dare to speak up against labour rights violations. As spaces for organised labour continue to shrink, freedom of expression is more and more trampled down.

Call for tenders for a study on minimum wages in Sindh Province in Pakistan in January and February 2023

Research on labor rights violations for potential complaints under the German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains (LKSG)

The German Act on Corporate Due Diligence Obligations in Supply Chains (LKSG) has come into force in January 2023. It obliges companies with more than 3000 employees to exercise human rights due diligence with regards to their supply chain. In particular, the right to an adequate wage and freedom of association are protected under the law (§ 2 II No. 6, 8, 11). In this context, the German NGOs FEMNET (member of the Clean Clothes campaign) and ECCHR (the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights) are working on a project to see how the law can help to address labor rights violations in garment factories.