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The dark side of Bengaluru's garment factories

06 Feb '16
5 min read

Some workers say that they are scolded regularly by their supervisors, but most workers are afraid to talk about any abuse they might be facing. The local labour unions cannot access the migrant workers, because of the security guards at the hostels and the restricted freedom of movement. Thus, while the language barrier prevents outside communication, migrant women workers have no place to go for effective grievance redressal.

All the aforementioned multinational brands sourcing from the garment factories in Bangalore have responded to the findings and declared to take serious action.

C&A, H&M and Inditex announced to work together toward a coordinated and collaborative approach to improve the living conditions of the migrant garment workers. Jointly, they want to ensure freedom of association, by liaising with local trade unions GLU (Garment Labour Union) and GATWU (Garment and Textile Workers Union). They also want to empower migrant workers with training and a grievance handling system, with support of the local NGO Gram Tarang. They have said to review curfew regulations at hostels and to engage with industry experts, other brands and stakeholders to implement a comprehensive industry-wide program to institutionalize international standards in the area of recruitment, accommodation, grievance handling, training and development of migrant workers.

Individually, C&A said it will make efforts to further investigate conditions at Shahi Exports, H&M will apply and reinforce compliance with multi-stakeholder developed dormitory guidelines for all hostels in the H&M supply chain, and Inditex will implement a project throughout their supply chain in India, based on a baseline assessment, targeting the provision of better hostel facilities, putting in place a grievance handling mechanism and training and counselling sessions for migrant workers and sensitizing (management) staff.

PVH Corp. has explained that they asked the named suppliers to report back to them on their individual circumstances and that they were developing guidelines that are intended to address the issues raised in the ICN paper.

GAP replied extensively and stated that apart from efforts with individual vendors, they also closely work with Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) and other brands to contribute to an industry-wide multi-stakeholder forum comprising of industry, brands, local unions and other civil society organisations to effectively address the issue in Bengaluru and to find long-term sustainable solutions.

The ICN said after a year or earlier , it expect to hear from companies how the planned measures have been implemented and what the results are. (SH)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk – India

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