Chameli earns 51¢ an hour making clothes for Australia's $23 billion fashion industry
Chameli often goes hungry and earns about 51¢ an hour making clothes in a factory that supplies Australia's $23 billion fashion industry.
She lives in a nine square metre room with her husband and three daughters, aged between 5 and 14, and shares two stoves and one bathroom with five other families. Because she is unable to make ends meet on poverty wages making clothes supplied to Australian brands including Big W, her children no longer attend school and the eldest works in a clothing factory.
"The thing that motivates me the most. I just think if I don't work, my children won't get any food," she says.
A landmark Oxfam Australia investigation, the first of its kind into the lives of workers in supply chains of Australian brands including Big W, Kmart, Target and Cotton On, has revealed they sometimes go hungry and without basic healthcare. Oxfam is urging the retailers to ensure factory workers are being paid a living wage that is enough for basic essentials including food, healthcare and housing.
Oxfam Australia with the Bangladesh Institute for Labour Studies and the Institute for Workers and Trade Unions in Vietnam conducted in-depth interviews with more than 470 workers in Bangladesh and Vietnam and 130 factory owners, managers and union leaders.
Nine out of 10 textile workers interviewed in Bangladesh could not afford enough food for themselves and families, forcing them to regularly skip meals or go into debt. A slightly lower proportion of the workers in Vietnam were in a similar situation.
The report, Made in Poverty, has exposed a system of entrenched labour exploitation that is trapping millions in poverty. Research conducted for Oxfam by Deloitte Access Economics has shown the Australian companies would only need to increase the sale price of clothing by 1 per cent to ensure textile workers in Asia earned a living wage.
Oxfam Australia chief executive Helen Szoke said the investigation uncovered widespread payment of poverty wages and the impact this had on the lives of mainly female workers who make the clothes Australians "love to wear".
“Women who are unable to get treatment when they fall sick, workers who cannot afford to send their children to school, families that cannot make their pay stretch to put enough food on the table, people sleeping on floors in overcrowded houses, spiralling debts, mothers separated from their children – these are just some of the common realities of the failure of big brands to ensure the payment of living wages,” Dr Szoke said.
Tania, a 21-year-old woman from Bangladesh, who was also interviewed by Oxfam, earns $169 a month in a factory supplying clothes to brands including Kmart. She only sees her four-year-old daughter twice a year because she is living with her grandparents in a village 250 kilometres away.
"I feel so miserable being a mother, I can't meet my child, my daughter cries without me," she says.
Bangladesh textile worker Tania, 21, holds the only photo of her daughter who lives in a distant village with her grandparents.
She lives in a tiny rented room on her own and cannot afford to bring her parents and child to live with her.
"Here, there is no one to look after my baby," she said.
BIG W said it cares about the rights and lives of the workers in Bangladesh and has begun addressing the issues raised in the Oxfam research.
"BIG W is committed to improving the lives of workers in Bangladesh and is working collaboratively with our suppliers and global organisations to achieve this, however, we know we still have more work to do," a spokeswoman said.
"In July 2018, we re-launched our Responsible Sourcing Program, including the release of our revised Responsible Sourcing Standards.
"We recognise our responsibility as a retailer and will continue to work hard to make further improvements in this space."
A spokesman for Kmart and Target said everyone touched by their businesses should be treated "fairly and with respect, whether they shop with us, work for us, or work for a supplier in a factory making our products".
"We are proud that our sourcing creates employment opportunities for many workers, but there are challenges in sourcing from some locations that require many different parties working together to address," the spokesman said.
"Simply paying higher prices or imparting stricter standards will not result in factory workers receiving a higher wage or working under better conditions as there are many different parties which have an influence on pay and conditions.
"Imparting real change can only be done by working in partnership with other retailers, trade unions, suppliers, workers and national governments."
The Cotton On Group has published an ethical sourcing commitment on its website which says "environments in which our products are made, the people who make them and the materials used are incredibly important to us and form a critical part of our commitment to operate ethically. We know that our responsibility goes far beyond selling clothes".
Source: https://www.smh.com.au