In an appeal and an “urgent wake-up call” for Western brands producing in Pakistan, a report released yesterday by human rights organizations shows that garment workers in Pakistan continue to be systematically exploited. Instead of reducing the grievances through increasing social audits, the situation of the workers has actually worsened.
Fashion brands including Gap, Adidas, Asda, H&M, M&S, Puma, Levi’s, Primark, Boohoo and Inditex source their goods from suppliers featured in the report. Everyone has implemented social audits to check standards. “Social auditing is unable to detect violations and is clearly not fit for purpose,” says Lara Strangways, head of business and human rights at Global Rights Compliance and one of the study’s authors. “Brands need to act urgently to rethink their sourcing approach and discuss appropriate remedial action with the trade union movement. If they don’t, it’s only a matter of time before we see another disaster involving them.”
The report, prepared by garment workers solidarity group Labor Behind the Label in collaboration with International Law Firm for Human Rights and Global Rights Compliance Foundation, exposes and details the increasing exploitation of garment workers in Pakistan about how factories used by some of the world’s biggest fashion brands routinely violate minimum wages, enforce excessive working hours, ignore health and safety concerns, and avoid compensation for injured or killed workers.
High inflation in Pakistan is making the situation worse
This comes at a time when Pakistan is reeling from massive inflation, which has reached 36 percent in April 2023, its highest level in almost five decades. Workers at the bottom of the supply chain are most affected by the erosion of their purchasing power and the deterioration of their already difficult living conditions. The report shows that factories have exploited workers by employing them in less formal ways to reduce risks and cut costs. More than a third of the workers surveyed were paid less than the legal minimum wage and almost two thirds of the workers were not paid the agreed hourly rate for forced overtime. It was also found that violations of occupational safety and health were commonplace in the factories examined. The audits routinely do not uncover the violations and the associated risks are not pointed out.
The report calls on fashion brands to, among other things, halt increasing informalization in factories in Pakistan, work towards living wages, join the Pakistan Accord and promote freedom of association and collective bargaining.