Child-and-adult-labour-in-the-export-oriented-garment-and-gem-polishing-industry-of-India

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Adult labour in the garment export industry of Bangalore
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heavily protected by many security guards. I was only allowed in the factory after working hours.
The tailoring department was full of tailoring machines very close to each other. There was little
space to walk. In the Summers it must be a very hot and noisy unit. The production manager was
very cautious and did not want to answer any questions related to labour.
It was found that C&A and Quelle, two European chain-stores, buy garments from this export
company. The garment labels which I have seen in the factory include: CANDA (C&A), NL-
MARCA (C&A), MC CASUALS, QUELLE, NEW FAST (C&A). There hanged only shirts in
the factory. The dyeing and bleaching unit were somewhere else. In the unit there were 90
tailoring machines.
The factory was established in 1980. The turnover is said to be Rs 75-85 lakhs per year and the
profit 10%. In this factory, ladies garments, shirts, pants blouses and waste coats, are manufactured.
The factory can manufacture 60,000 garment pieces per month. It covers all the processes:
cutting, stitching, finishing, bleaching, dyeing, checking, packing, sending etc. The garments of
this factory are exported to France (60%), Austria, Germany (30%), Holland (C&A), Belgium,
Denmark, UK. This factory only produces garments for export. The manager said that for a simple
shirt, a Dutch buyer pays on an average Dfl 9.19.
In the factory work around 200 to 250 workers. The workers are spread over three separate units.
Out of this workforce, 20% is male. The ages of the workers range between 18 and 40 years. The
machines were 10 years old. They were planning to buy new machinery. The fabrics were bought
from places close to Bangalore, like Salem, Erode and Karur.
The garments are controlled on quality in the following steps: first the finished garments are checked;
threads and spots are removed. Second, the garments are checked again, ironed, and checked
for the last time. After that, the garment is ready for packing and sending. The transport of the
products is done by the company itself and the buyers. Buyers directly trade with them. Every two
months the buyers come to the factory and check the garments, give an advise to the exporter and
ask for changes if it is needed. The relationship with buyers, at present, lasts 8 to 9 years.
The company faces many problems, as stated by the production manager, like an irregular supply
of fabric, power problems and labour problems. He said that there was a lot of work pressure in
the factory, but he did not want to elaborate further on this issue 112 . He said that the director of
the company took care of these aspects.
The production manager said that the wages which are paid in the factory vary from Rs 700, Rs
1500 to Rs 2200 per month. Women and men are performing equal jobs. The wage is a fixed
112 During this study a worker was interviewed, who had worked in this factory but left the job because the wages were too low and the
work pressure was too high. The supervisors were always shouting at the workers that they should work harder. The ex-worker said that she
earned Rs 300 for carrying out the job of helper. The wage had been increased to Rs 400 after she had worked three years in the factory. Another
worker, who still worked in this factory, said that the probationary period took one year and the wage paid in this period was Rs 650 per
month. The interviewed worker already had been working for 5 years as a tailor in this factory, and his wage still was at the level of Rs 1,200
per month. The worker was also complaining about the low wages which were paid in this factory, and the high work pressure. The director of
this factory dismissed workers if they joined a labour union.