BANGLADESH: Retailers urge action on garment wages
By just-style.com | 5 February 2010
Eleven global retailers, including Walmart, Gap Inc and H&M, are urging the Bangladeshi Prime Minister to take "swift action" over low wages for garment workers which they fear could taint their reputations as socially responsible companies.
The retailers want the government to "form a review board and address the minimum wage issue in the garment sector with the built-in mechanism of a yearly review," the Financial Express newspaper said.
In a letter sent by the firms, including Carrefour, Tesco and Levi Strauss, they said worker strikes and protests over low wages are "seen as a risk among our companies and could cause damage to the reputation of Bangladesh as a reliable sourcing market."
"All signatories to this letter are socially responsible companies expecting that workers producing our products are properly compensated by their employers," the letter said.
The Bangladeshi apparel industry, which employs more than 2m workers and has around 4,500 factories, is regularly disrupted by strikes and protests over low wages and poor working conditions, which have led to widespread factory closures.
The basic government-set minimum monthly wage of a garment worker is around US$25, but a family of four spends around half of this on food.
Clothing factories are also thought to have cut wages by 20-30% in a bid to compete for orders with countries such as Vietnam, China and India.
In fact, wages are so bad that workers are regularly offered subsidised rice to try to shield staff on low wages from rising food prices.
Ironically, the industry's highly publicised poor pay and conditions are also leading to an acute shortage of workers, as they migrate one factory to another in search of higher salaries.
Indeed, it is so bad according to some stakeholders that at least 30% of manufacturing capacity is unused.
And as if this wasn't bad enough, production is beset by unreliable gas and electricity supplies.
Between July and November 2009, knitwear exports from Bangladesh fell by 5.7% while woven garments dropped 7.9%, compared with the same period a year earlier.
Sectors: Apparel, Manufacturing, Retail
Companies: Gap Inc, H&M, Carrefour, Tesco, Levi Strauss
View next/previous articles
5 Feb 2010 -
Currently reading -
BANGLADESH: Retailers urge action on garment wages
5 Feb 2010 -
Related articles
There is currently 1 comment on this article
These big retailers should pay more for there products and ensure that the wages to the workers go up accordingly, the retailer has the power to do this, as they have the power to drive down prices, which they have done over the last 30 years.
Mr Chris said at 10:52 am, June 8, 2010
Reply to this comment