EPORT final 19/1/04 10:20 am Page 62Some employers refuse to recognise or negotiate with unions, violating the workers’right to collective bargaining. Committee members in several Thai garment factoryunions reported that they would be the first to be laid off when orders fell, or would becontinually excluded from overtime shifts, reduced to a basic wage too low to live off.Honduran garment workers say that a reputation for activism will follow them. ‘If youapply to a new factory,’ explained one woman, ‘the management gets in touch with your oldemployer to find out why you left. If it was because you were in the union, you’ll get turneddown.’ 53Faking itCaught between intense production pressure and inspections of labour standards, somefactories rely on fooling inspectors – and when visits are quick, announced in advance,and conducted by foreigners, it is relatively easy. Double book keeping hides the longhours. Gita, working in a leading Sri Lankan garment factory, each month receives apaper bag that has her pay slip printed on it – but with no mention of her overtimehours. Inside the bag, with her earnings, is another piece of paper.She explained, ‘This is the overtime pay. The company does not include overtime paymentin the pay-slip itself, because then the people coming to the factory would know that we havebeen working more than the overtime hours allowed. We have been instructed by the companynot to show this piece of paper when they come to question us.’ 54Coaching and bribing workers is common. One pregnant Thai worker described theinstructions from the personnel manager before an inspection. ‘He said the customerwill ask “Do you work overtime?” and we have to say “No!”’ But in reality pregnant workerswork overtime and on Sunday as well. We sometimes work until two in the morning ortill dawn, but we have to say that we work overtime only until eight in the evening … If we lie,we will get paid 400 baht [two days’ wages].’ In China, several factory managers admittedto using an array of tools for passing the compliance test, despite extreme violations ofthe code’s standards (see table opposite).Governments can make it easy for factories to get away with poor labour standards.In Kenya, labour inspectors did not have the right to enter export processing zonesuntil mid-2003. The government of Bangladesh, under pressure to introduce reformsin order to retain US trade preferences, and aiming to build a good reputation for labourstandards, has committed itself to lifting its ban on trade union activities in EPZs byJanuary 2004. Fierce competition in China for foreign investment between provincescan leave law enforcement a low priority. ‘The labour regulations simply are not workinghere – nobody cares to enforce them, not even the trade union or the labour bureau,’ said onecompany director in Shenzhen, China. 55In many countries, labour inspectors are too few or paid too little to ensure that workers’rights are enforced. In Thailand in 2002, there were just 600 inspectors visiting300,000 factories – that is one inspector for every 500 factories. 56 In Bangladesh,there is a backlog of 10,000 workers’ cases waiting for a hearing at the labour courts,and each can take four to five years to settle. 57 In Morocco, inspectors are paid US$238per month – just above the minimum wage – leaving them open to corruption. ‘The labourinspection means nothing,’ said one women workers’ organiser. ‘When the inspector visitsthe company, he meets with management. He has a coffee with the personnel boss, goes into thecontrol room, chooses a suit, tries it on and off he goes.’ And in Bangalore, India’s fashiongarment hub, one labour inspector admitted, ‘We have received instructions from above tobe lenient in inspections as these factories are contributing to the economic growth of the State.’ 58Faking it: how to pass inspections in Guangdong province, ChinaRetailers and brands Monthly Workers’ % not Employment status Management methods ofsourcing from the overtime experiences receiving and rights deceiving inspectors andfactory hours minimum visitors(legal limit 36)wagesaccordingto hoursworkedFactory A: 150–200 Overtime often runs 35% No maternity leave False documents on wagesWal-Mart past midnight, and No social insurance and hoursExplorer workers have only one coverage Coaching workers toNo Boundaries day off each month 60% have no contract answer questionsPiece-rate pay with noovertime premiumFactory B: 180–250 Workers are fined for 50% No written contracts Double sets of workers’Toys R Us being late, answering No maternity leave punch cardsFirst Impressions back to managers, and No social insurance Coaching workers toWal-Mart not making their beds coverage answer questionsPiece-rate pay with no Dismissing uncooperativeovertime premium workersFactory C: 80–180 Two to three women 40% Two or three times a False documents on hoursTarget suffer head injuries month the workers have and wagesSears each week after to work all night. Broadcasting training toTommy Hilfiger passing out from But there is no overtime, workers on how to answerexhaustion only the basic piece-rate questionspayThreatening workersSource: Liu, K.M. (2003)6263
EPORT final 19/1/04 10:20 am Page 64Paul Weinberg/OXFAMOn South Africa’s fruit farms, women get the seasonal and temporary jobs,year after year. Working up to 11 hours a day at harvest time,the vast majority earn only the minimum wage with no paid leave,no maternity leave, and no security of employment.4Injustice in the fields
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