Major fashion companies and brands like zara,H&M,and GAP found to exploi Bangladesh garment industry workers, with unfair practices and pay the suppliers less cost of production, according to a study published few days back
This study that surveyed many Bangladeshi factories and companies which make garments for global brands and retailers during the COVID pandemic found they got same price inspite of the global pandemic and increased prices.
More than half of garment factories experienced order cancellations, refusal to pay,,price reductions or delayed payment of goods and many such things which led them to loss in trade.
These things led to reduction in wage of employees,loss of their jobs and many more losses to them in critical time of covid where everyone was suffering.At that time these unfair things made things even more worse for them
Many retailers and brands named in the study, out of which 37 percent were reported as having engaged in unfair ways and means, including Zara’s Inditex, H&M, Lidl, GAP, New Yorker, Primark, Next and other companies.
The study also found that one in many factoies even struggled to pay the legal minimum wage when they reopened after 2020 lockdown.
Study even recommended establishing a fashion something that would help to cutoff or lessen unfair practices by ensuring that buyers/retailers cannot put rrisks onto their suppliers and that retailers and brands on the basis of fair commercial practices.
In August, Bangladesh’s garment industry faced a flooding from slowing global demand and an energy crisis at home that was threatening to weakens and slow down the nation’s pandemic recovery.
In the same month, many large global retailers agrees to two-year pact with workers and factory owners of garment industry in Bangladesh, extending a pre-existing agreement that makes retailers responsible if their factories do not meet labour safety standards, including big companies and brandsH&M, Inditex, Fast Retailing’s Uniqlo, Hugo Boss, and Adidas.
The exploitation of workers of garment industry and worse labour safety standards have come in limelight after the Rana Plaza complex collapse in 2013 that killed more than thousand garment workers.It is considered as the deadliest incident in garment industry history.
IMAGE SOURCE : Freepresskashmir
