Femnet e.V.

Female migrants employed in India’s garment factories supplying to big international brands like Benetton, C&A, GAP, H&M, Levi’s, M&S and PVH, are subject to conditions of modern slavery. In Bangalore, India’s biggest garment producing hub, young women are recruited with false promises about wages and benefits, they work in garment factories under high-pressure for low wages. These are some conclusions from the report ‘Labour Without Liberty – Female Migrant Workers in Bangalore's Garment Industry’ - published by the Indian Garment Labour Union, the India Committee of the Netherlands and Clean Clothes Campaign.

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On 24 April 2013, the world watched in astonishment and shame as horror of the Rana Plaza building collapse was broadcast across the world’s media. This was where the race to the bottom had led the garment industry: factories housed in unsafe buildings and workers afraid to enter a workplace with visible cracks in the walls, but even more afraid to lose their wages if they refused. The Rana Plaza collapse was a moment in which all pledged to do better and to start respecting the lives of the women and men working long hours for low pay to make our clothes. Five years on, we take stock. This memo aims to give an overview of the promises made in 2013, and what has – and has not – changed following the world’s worst ever garment factory disaster. It also serves as a guide to the excellent pieces of research that have become available at this moment of retrospection for labour rights in the garment industry.

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Despite being the second largest exporter of clothing, and the location of some of the worst recent factory disasters, Bangladesh is one of only a handful of countries that entirely fails to provide for a national employment injury scheme for workers who are injured in private workplaces. This position paper makes the case for swift action to put in place a national employment injury insurance system in Bangladesh, with a bridging solution to serve as a stepping stone and to support workers and their families affected by factory incidents since the Rana Plaza collapse.

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The Vietnamese garment industry is the country’s second largest exporting industry, following electronics, and accounts for 15 percent of the country’s GDP and 20.77 percent of its total exports in 2014. The U.S is the biggest market for garments from Vietnam, while Japan and the EU come second and third, respectively. According to the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and ILO Convention 98 on Protection of the Right to Organise, Vietnam has not ratified worker’s rights. Freedom of association remains the most challenging problem for Vietnam. Workers are not allowed to establish independent trade unions of their choice, as all enterprise unions must be affiliated to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, the only recognised union in the country. At the grassroots level, it is common to find enterprise union leadership dominated by high-ranking managers and collective bargaining agreements that are copied from the labour legislation.

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Garment and textile is the second biggest exporting industry in Vietnam, after electronics, accounting for 15 percent of the country’s GDP and 14 percent of its total exports in 2015. The United States is the biggest market for garments from Vietnam while Japan and the European Union EU come second and third respectively.

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