While living in India I had always wondered about the need for more jobs. With ten million employable Indians entering the job market every year it is inevitable that getting a job becomes the top priority, not the kind of work, the wages, the work conditions etc.
Living in Australia, I am surprised at the prices charged for goods of various kinds to consumers here. A lot of the times, they are charged Aussie prices but manufactured at Chinese costs.
Guardian is carrying an article on the low wages in Bangladesh in the textile industry for garments supplied to the UK from War on Want.
Some of Britain’s best-known high street brands are selling “cheap chic” clothes at the expense of workers in Bangladesh who are paid 5p an hour despite pledges to protect basic labour rights, an investigation by War on Want will reveal today.
Employees in Bangladesh are forced to work excessive hours, refused access to trade unions and face abuse and sacking if they protest, says the report, Fashion Victims, based on interviews with 60 garment workers from six factories.
War on Want accusses the primary three retailers, Primark, Asda and Tesco, that even though they have publicly acknowledged the fact that they will provide a decent work week and wages, it is not followed in the factories.
More importantly, Bangladesh has the cheapest workforce in the world, with wages halving in real terms in the past 10 years. Experts say a living wage in Bangladesh would be 3,000 taka, well above shopfloor salaries in an industry of 2 million employees, despite massive street protests in September.
The garment workers protest of hard work and less pay but the factory owners are threatened with moving the jobs to China.
Reports like these are very important to educate the customers in the developed countries. Many companies will go for the cheapest possible solution to their sourcing and many factories and their employees in the developing countries do not have the choice but to follow draconian laws. Sometimes, they do not have a choice with their situation.
One possible way out of this mess is changing the bahaviour of companies however, that many not happen anytime fully. The second way, is the consumer vote.
Consumers vote their choice everytime they buy something. If more information is provided to consumers, and they remember and act on that information then there is a possibility that things may improve in the developing world.
A movement called Ethical Sourcing is behind this. What does it mean?
From the Ethical Trade Initiative:
“Ethical trade” means different things to different people. In particular, some people refer to “ethical trade” as an umbrella term for all types of business practices that promote more socially and/or environmentally responsible trade. Others use the term in a much narrower sense, referring specifically to the labour practices in a company’s supply chain.
For ETI, and throughout this Website, we use the term “ethical trade” in the narrower sense. For us, ethical trade – or ethical sourcing – means the assumption of responsibility by a company for the labour and human rights practices within its supply chain.
Companies take responsibility for their supply chain labour conditions in many different ways. That is, there are many different approaches to ethical sourcing, and while some approaches are undoubtedly more effective than others, there is no one “right way”.
Nevertheless, a company’s ethical sourcing strategy usually involves adopting a “code of practice”, that sets out minimum labour standards that they expect their suppliers to comply with.
Governments and people in developed countries have been interested to help their fellow world citizens in the poorer parts for a long time. Mostly this has been achieved by providing aid and charity donations to various organizations. Some are important and work and some do not.
However, if companies support “ethical sourcing” practices, then there is a tremondous gain in a stable wage, increased living conditions, which in turn would provide support to the family of the worker and in case of a women it can turn out into a education for her child.
Consumers and companies can increased the pace of development in many parts of the world with simple actions. The power is there, will they use it?
