Fashion victims
Garment workers pay a high price to produce cheap clothes for the UK high street. Factories across the world, including in Bangladesh and India, produce clothes for retailers on the UK high street, and garment workers working there struggle to survive on extremely low pay, suffering poor working conditions, arduous hours and a complete lack of trade union representation in the factories.
Our most recent report, Taking Liberties, shows that the garment industry in India, which supplies so much clothing to the UK, is deeply reliant on the sweatshop model of production and exploitation.
We had previously reported on the disgraceful treatment and low pay of workers in Bangladesh, making clothes for Primark, Asda and Tesco, in our acclaimed Fashion Victims report in 2006. Two years on, UK retailers had still not improved the conditions in their supplier factories. In fact, given the damaging effects of the global food crisis, workers were in an even worse position than they were before.
For too long the UK government has supported purely voluntary initiatives for improving the rights of overseas workers. But there have been few steps taken to improve workers’ rights, pay or working conditions within these mechanisms.
Retailers cannot continue to pay lip service to corporate social responsibility whilst engaging in buying practices that systematically undermine the principles of decent work. War on Want will continue to hold to account those UK companies that exploit workers for their own profit.
Ultimately, however, the UK government must act to regulate the operations of its companies, both in the UK and overseas. We recommend people take action for overseas workers and to challenge the UK government on its failure to defend the rights of working people. Â
