New project to tackle violence against women in India and Bangladesh.

Here's a story from just-Style magazine by Leonie Barrie, 27th Oct. 

As the article points out, most workers in the garment industry are women, so anything that can be done to improve the lives of these women will have a huge impact.

A project to reduce workplace violence against women working in export-oriented garment factories in Bangladesh and India has won a three-year grant from the United Nations Trust Fund.

The initiative will be implemented in Tirupur and Bangalore India, and Dhaka, Bangladesh, starting in autumn 2011, and is being coordinated by the Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) and four partner organisations.

According to FWF, recent research estimates that 60% of women in the garment industry have experienced some form of harassment, verbal abuse or physical abuse.

India and Bangladesh both have legal frameworks to prevent and address workplace violence, but full implementation of these laws in the garment industry has been hampered by several factors, including the complexity of apparel supply chains.

The new project will pilot ways to implement existing laws at the factory level through enhanced labour monitoring and remediation systems. One of its main focuses will be on improving relationships between workers, export-oriented garment factories, and the European companies that outsource to them.

To improve the chances of success, business, labour, government and non-profit organisations will all help to design and guide the project, ensuring buy-in from all stakeholder groups.

Up to 90% of workers in some garment factories are women. A high percentage of women workers are also employed in other export-oriented industries, so a key long-term aim is to establish best practices which can be implemented in other industries and countries around the world.

"The benefits to women of a workplace without violence are clear and immediate, and an issue of respect for fundamental human rights," said Erica Van Doorn, director of Fair Wear Foundation.

"Factories also benefit from reducing violence and improving dialogue with workers, which can lead to better morale and increased productivity. As corporate social responsibility concerns among clothing brands grow, factories with functioning anti-violence systems will have a competitive advantage in the international marketplace."

The project will be implemented by SAVE and Cividep in India and by AMRF Society and Awaj Foundation in Bangladesh.

If working overtime without adequate/legal  compensation constitutes a sweat shop, then Gucci is not the only one. Try just about every brand selling in the USA. The story would be far more interesting if the reporter could find out why they are working so much overtime, and why the wages do not meet the legal requirement. I have a feeling Gucci's purchasing practices might come under some scrutiny.
This report is from Just-Style magazine. Written by Richard Woodward

 Luxury Italian fashion brand Gucci has been accused of being a “sweatshop” by five people who used to work in the company’s store in Shenzhen.

China Daily reported that the former employees had complained of having to work overtime without adequate compensation, and of having to get permission to go to the bathroom or have a drink of water.

In an open letter, the ex-workers said they had had to stay on until 2am or 3am to conduct inventory checks, and had seen their salaries cut when items left in their charge were found to have vanished.

According to reports in Beijing, Gucci has so far declined to comment on the reports, except to say that it is investigating the allegations.

Gucci and parent company PPR failed to respond to just-style’s request for comment on the story.

Child Labor on the increase

At a recent conference of Labor Compliance Specialists, the conversation turned to child labor and its resurgence in China. We discussed the possible reasons for this spike. Here are the top 3.

1. A movement of work from the heavily audited east coastal belt into central china where few factories experience the scrutiny of factory audits.
2. Increased labor and material cost but little increase to the cost of the finished goods,
3. A shortage of workers.

With many factories struggling to stay in business and margins shrinking, it is hardly surprising that they try and cut costs. More than ever before, you are at serious risk if you do not have a robust compliance program, not only from being exposed by one of the many NGOs on the ground, but also falling foul of new regulations governing forced and child labor. 

If your factories are not passing on the large cost increases they are experiencing, you have to ask yourselves why.

Here's an Article from just-Style magazine by Leonie Barrie.

Garment, footwear and cotton producers continue to be among the worst offenders when it comes to the use of forced and child labour, according to a new report published by the US Labor Department.

The findings feature in the latest update to the 'List of Goods Produced by Child or Forced Labor' which the government agency was required to produce under the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2005. The initial list was published in September 2009, followed by the first update in December last year.

The department looked at a total of 130 goods from 71 countries. It found that 17 countries produced cotton with child or forced labour - including the addition of child labour in cotton production from Mali.

The other 16 countries are unchanged from the last list, and include Argentina, Azerbaijan, Benin, Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, Egypt, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Pakistan, Paraguay, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Zambia.

It also singled out India and Nepal for using forced and child labour in the production of embroidered textiles, and Bangladesh, China and North Korea for textiles.

Six countries (Argentina, China, India, Jordan, Malaysia and Thailand) were claimed guilty of violations in garments, and five (Bangladesh, Brazil, China, India and Indonesia) in footwear.

"These reports provide an overview of international efforts to protect children from hazardous work and identify critical gaps in policy and enforcement that leave them vulnerable," says US Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis.

"Through increased education and awareness, and critical assistance to families and governments, we can help make exploitative child labour a thing of the past."

While the ILO estimates that more than 215m children are involved in child labour, US officials also point out that some countries with relatively large numbers of goods on the list may not have the most serious problems of child labour or forced labour.

"Often, these are countries that have adopted a more open approach to acknowledgement of the problems, have better research and have allowed information on these issues to be disseminated," they note.

"Such countries include Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, India, Kenya, Mexico, Philippines, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda and Zambia."

The report also advises companies and industry groups to implement social compliance systems to ensure they are not profiting from "grave labour abuses" in their supply chains.