In the country profile of Turkey published a few days ago, the Clean Clothes Campaign found that Turkish textile workers earn only a quarter of what they would need to live.
The Turkish clothing industry employs 1.5 million people – most of them (60 percent) unregistered – in over 35,000 factories. That means without an employment contract, without social security and without clear remuneration.
“The shadow economy is booming. Day laborers from all over the world – refugees or migrants – work in Turkey for global fashion brands. Frequent violations of fundamental rights relate in particular to trade union rights, child labor and discrimination. Overtime regulations are consistently ignored – and nobody controls or punishes this,” summarizes the Turkish Clean Clothes Campaign in a statement.
Germany tops the top five clothing export markets with an export share of 18 percent, followed by Spain (13.2 percent), Great Britain (10.7 percent), the Netherlands (6.3 percent) and France (4.9 percent). Percent). Almost all major companies that offer or manufacture clothing have their products manufactured in Turkey – from Adidas to Zara.
Inflation rate worsens the wage situation in Turkey
In view of the acute economic and social crisis in Turkey – according to independent sources, the inflation rate reached 83 percent in 2021 alone – the Turkish Clean Clothes Campaign has researched the current wage and working conditions in the fashion industry and interviewed hundreds of workers in the last two years the manufacturing centers of Istanbul and Izmir.
Increases in the minimum wage, which is currently 4,253 Turkish lira or 241 euros net per month, could not compensate for the decline in purchasing power of wages. A basic living wage is currently 13,000 Turkish lira or 880 euros (as of January 2022), with calculations by the Turkish trade union federation Türk-Is coming to similar results as the Turkish Clean Clothes Campaign. Accordingly, the minimum wage covers only about a quarter of the basic living expenses and despite increases (from 51 percent recently), employees can only survive through constant debt restructuring and second jobs.
“I can hardly cope. I have debts. If I don’t work overtime, I’m in the red. When the children start school, I have to work even more overtime so that we can make ends meet,” says one of the workers.
“Our salary cannot cover our monthly costs. The children also have to sew during the school holidays and at the weekends,” says another employee. And that’s not all – over-indebtedness forces families to take children out of school and thus abandon their education so that they can also work and earn money.
An EU supply chain law is needed
Bego Demir from the Turkish Clean Clothes Campaign therefore demands that “fashion brands that have supply chains in Turkey must ensure that their employees get their rights”.
An effective EU supply chain law would also make employee rights independent of the goodwill of fashion brands, because then it would be a legally binding obligation to respect human rights in supply chains.