Garment Industry workers in Asia await $6 Billion in dues, says Clean Clothes Campaign

Garment workers, most of whom are sole breadwinners for their families, have been hit in the stomach by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They have been underpaid or not paid at all, which according to the Clean Clothes Campaign, amounts to $6 billion. The pressure group reveals that garment workers in South and Southeast Asia had not received three-fifths of their regular income from March to May.

According to their report, ‘Un(der) paid in the pandemic’, workers in some regions of India received less than half their income. Clean Clothes Campaign has urged brands and retailers to stop passing the buck and publicly commit to ensuring all workers in their supply chains received what they were owed. It said that a lack of data limited their research to only seven countries – Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Myanmar and Sri Lanka. Researchers estimated that garment workers the world over had lost $3.19 billion to $5.79 billion in the first three months of the pandemic. Clean Clothes Campaign estimated $500 million in wages had been withheld in Bangladesh and over $400 million in Indonesia.

Khalid Mahmood, Director of the Labour Education Foundation in Pakistan, in an official statement, said the wage gaps caused by the crisis mean that workers are not able to feed their families properly. “They are not able to pay for school fees or pay for medical expenses, and many of them are in debt,” he explained.

The pressure group highlights that clothing companies, had long, profited from low wages in countries with lax labour laws. “We are asking brands individually to make a public commitment to avoid a situation in which everyone in a supply chain has responsibility, but in practice nobody assumes responsibility,” said Christie Miedema, a Clean Clothes campaigner.

Earlier this year, the Apparel Export Promotion Corporation (AEPC) had conducted two surveys of garment exporters. It revealed that 88% of exporters felt challenged in paying wages to workers due to the crisis. As such the AEPC had requested the government to provide funds to exporters to pay wages to workers for six weeks or until the situation became normal.