Trading Away Our Rights - Oxfam International

EPORT final 19/1/04 10:20 am Page 56‘I used to send workers tothe hospital every week –they were sufferingsheer exhaustion, fainting,losing their minds ...Sometimes I passmy former employeesin the street –I dare not ask themabout their health.’ 31former garment factory owner,ThailandLooking out for labour standards?Quality, delivery, and price are key sourcing criteria – but what about labour standards?After ten years of initiatives in the garment sector, codes of conduct can be found postedon factory walls around the world. But workers’ reports of insecure contracts, low wagesand long overtime, extreme pressure, union busting, harassment, and extensivesub-contracting are still widespread. Why?Far too few retailers and brands take labour standards seriously. Some have nopublished code of conduct, some others write their own codes but with weak standardsand little effort to enforce them. A recent OECD survey of corporate codes of conductfound that out of 37 codes relating to the garment industry, fewer than half mentionfreedom of association, and two-thirds make no mention of monitoring systems. 23Model codes based on international labour standards have been drawn up bycompanies, unions, and NGOs collaborating in multi-stakeholder initiatives such asthe Ethical Trading Initiative in the UK, 24 Fair Wear Foundation in the Netherlands, 25and Workers’ Rights Consortium 26 , the Fair Labour Association 27 , and SocialAccountability International 28 in the United States. Many leading retail and brandcompanies are members, and some have recruited ethical specialists and conductedmultiple inspections. There have been some important improvements as a result,especially in the large factories that receive orders directly. Key changes commonlyinclude: keeping more systematic records, paying minimum wages, reducing overtime,and implementing better environmental, health, and safety policies. ‘After a while theauditors from the US came,’ said one Honduran factory manager, ‘asking that we pay ouremployees better, that we improve the working conditions, that we pay and not discriminate.The investors are a key factor in all these processes in the industry.’ 29 Pressure from retailersand brands can clearly play an important role in improving working conditions – butthere are still significant barriers to doing this.First, many companies’ inspections are too quick, fail to involve workers and crediblelocal organisations, and focus on a checklist of health and safety standards. One Sri Lankanmanager described the priorities of visiting inspectors. ‘They are very particular about thetoilets,’ he said. ‘Recently they wanted the company to have a fire assembly point and to markit clearly and to increase the lighting. Further they wanted the doors to open outward and notinward. The company had to renovate the building according to these recommendations andbear the cost.’ 30 Less visible problems – union restrictions, forced pregnancy testing,unpaid health benefits, and hidden homeworkers – are easily overlooked in such anapproach.Second, even good inspections cannot prevent all labour rights violations, because theyonly capture half the story. By focusing on problems at the point of production,factory inspections ignore the role of brands’ and retailers’ own purchasing practicesin creating those problems. Excessive overtime is often the result of buyers demandingunrealistic delivery deadlines, then adding delays and sample changes at short notice.When retailers make no commitment to working with a factory, they undermine themanager’s motivation to implement their code. ‘I spent three years getting up to compliancewith the SA8000 standard,’ said one factory owner in Thailand, ‘and then the customerwho had asked for it in the first place left and went to China.’ 32 When retail buyers faceperformance incentives focused only on making margins and keeping the store shelvesstocked, they are unlikely to worry how such cheap and flexible production is achieved.‘The buyers are not too particular about the sub-contracting factories meeting complianceissues,’ said one Sri Lankan agent handling orders for Versace. ‘We sometimes turn ablind eye too. We have to, or else we can’t meet the deadlines or the low costs.’ 33End the double standards!Five purchasing practices that undermine labour standards ingarment supply chains:• changing and delaying samples without extending shipping deadlines, often resultingin excessive overtime and sub-contracting;• withdrawing when labour-standard violations are discovered, instead of working withthe producer to become compliant;• switching frequently between producers, undermining their commitments to long-termprogress on labour standards;• sourcing through agents and mid-chain suppliers who do not provide information onproducers and workers down the chain;• demanding improvements in labour conditions from producers without making theadjustments to price or delivery time required to make it possible.5657