Amnesty International urges textile giants to safeguard workers' rights

On Thursday, Amnesty International urged global textile companies and the governments of four Asian countries to take action to defend the rights of workers in the sector and ensure living wages.

The NGO, which published two reports on the issue on Thursday, says fashion brands manufacturing in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka must take urgent action to protect the rights of workers in their supply chains.

Based on nearly 90 interviews in 20 factories in these four countries, the reports detail “widespread violations of freedom of association in the garment industry,” including violations of workers' rights and acts of harassment and violence by employers, it says.

“In many respects, the fashion industry is a model built on the exploitation of cheap labor, and we see producing countries like India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka effectively pressured to keep wages low and suppress unionization, because they want brands to order from them,” Dominique Muller, a textile industry researcher at Amnesty, told AFP.

While the textile sector accounts for up to 40% of manufacturing jobs in these countries, workers are “poorly paid and overworked, with limited access to fundamental rights and systematically disenfranchised through informal and precarious contracts,” says Amnesty.

However, he regrets that “the garment industry has not adequately addressed the denial of these essential rights.”

Amnesty sent 21 companies a questionnaire requesting information on their human rights policies, monitoring and specific actions related to freedom of association. However, “there is little evidence to determine whether human rights policies are being implemented at the factory level.”

“Companies must stop simply repeating their commitment to freedom of association and adopt an active sourcing strategy that…rewards suppliers and countries that respect this freedom,” urged Dominique Muller.

These reports are published against the backdrop of the European Union undoing a directive on social and environmental due diligence for large companies.

In mid-November, MEPs voted to dismantle the core ambitions of the text, reducing the scope of companies covered and removing some of their social and environmental obligations.