Garment workers news and archive

Asian garment workers owed almost 12 billion dollars in wages amid pandemic

As fashion brands and retailers across the world return to profitability following what has been an immensely difficult period of international store courses and plummeting demand for fashion, for those making the world’s clothing, the story is far from over. According to a new report by the Clean Clothes Campaign, Asian garment workers are owed...

Jul 19, 2021

Fashion

Not our problem: Global brands defer responsibility for garment workers living below poverty line

The world’s biggest fashion companies are yet to agree to renew a long term Bangladesh safety accord eight years after the Rana Plaza disaster. Yet for all the good the accord can accomplish, companies including Zara and H&M are holding out because of direct liabilities. Only five of the original signatories so far have signed, with the deadline...

Jul 14, 2021

Fashion

Garment workers from nine countries call for better terms from retailers

Garment makers from nine countries have come together to demand better contracts from global fashion retailers after billions of dollars worth of orders were cancelled or paused last year amid the pandemic. Thirteen garment suppliers associations in China, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Pakistan, Turkey, Morocco and Indonesia have...

Apr 2, 2021

Business |INTERVIEW

Social compliance: “When workers are more comfortable, it makes them more productive”

Professor Drusilla Brown has led a research team at Tufts University in Massachusetts, USA in the past 20 year that conducts randomized controlled field experiments on various interventions. They are designed to improve conditions of work in global supply chains, particularly in industries such as garment manufacturing dominated by women. Tufts’...

Apr 1, 2021

Business

Made in Myanmar: What can brands and retailers do?

Following the military coup in Myanmar on 1st February 2021, a state of emergency has been declared in the Southeast Asian country, which is an attractive sourcing location for the textile and garment industry. Tens of thousands of people are taking to the streets every day, demanding the release and reinstatement of head of government Aung San...

Mar 19, 2021

Fashion

MPs call for adjudicator to tackle UK garment supply chain abuses

MPs have called for the introduction of a garment trade adjudicator to help eradicate non-compliance with labour market regulation in the UK’s garment industry. It comes as the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) said it has seen evidence of “ongoing labour abuses in the domestic and international supply chains supplying UK fashion retailers”....

Mar 12, 2021

Business

One year later: How are garment workers and suppliers faring since the Covid-19 pandemic started?

A recent panel to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on garment workers and suppliers revealed that one year later, not all is well in the world of fashion. In fact, research shows that garment workers are going hungry, brands are asking for steep discounts on new orders, and wages to factory workers are going down; all of this is...

Mar 4, 2021

Retail

Female UK garment factory workers at higher risk of dying from Covid

Female garment factory workers in the UK have statistically significantly higher death rates related to the coronavirus than the rate among other women of the same age in the population, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). In the ‘assemblers and routine operatives’ category - which includes jobs such as sewing - 21 deaths were...

Feb 18, 2021

Culture

New short film highlights plight of garments “Made in America”

Is apparel manufacturing close to home the better, safer and fairer option? Not necessarily as various exposés regarding“Made in Europe”have shown and across the pond, “Made in America” does not fare any better. In a just released short film with the same title, US-based NGORemakegives viewers a look into multiple Los Angeles clothing factories...

Aug 10, 2020

Business

Support garment workers affected by Covid-19

The ready-made garment sector in Bangladesh has been particularly hard-hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. USD 1.5 billion of business has already been lost and 1.2 million garment workers’ livelihoods have been impacted. Many factories have been shut down indefinitely and workers were given only 23 days of salary as severance or sometimes none at...

Jun 18, 2020

Business

Study: "Exploitation Made in Europe": human rights violations plague apparel production

Five days ago was the seventh anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh. More than 1,100 garment workers lost their lives and thousands were injured. The event highlighted the inhuman working conditions: locked in, intimidated and grossly underpaid. Tragic, we think, but far away. New research by the Clean Clothes...

Apr 29, 2020

Business

Marks & Spencer, H&M and Bestseller detail measures to help suppliers

Marks & Spencer, H&M and Bestseller have outlined measures to help support suppliers after fashion retailers received widespread criticism in recent weeks when many companies cancelled or refused to pay for huge orders of clothing. As of the beginning of April, 1.4 billion dollars worth of orders had been cancelled and another 1.8 billion...

Apr 24, 2020