IOE, Global Unions offer tactic to protect garment workers

27 Apr '20

2 min read

Pic: Shutterstock

A recent statement by the International Organisation of Employers (IOE) and Global Unions offered a collective approach to mitigating the massive loss of life, jobs and income in garment supply chains caused by the COVID-19 crisis. It sets brands and retailers upon a much needed path of addressing the crisis in a collaborative manner with workers’ representatives.

Global Unions is a partnership between the International Trade Union Confederation, Global Union Federations and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Mass cancellation of orders by apparel companies has left factories around the world without cash to pay their workers.

Brands endorsing this statement commit to a minimum of immediate measures such as paying for orders in production, engaging with governments and international financial institutions to take responsibility for establishing funds to address the immediate needs of workers and strengthening social protection floors in supply chains, a press release by the Netherlands-based Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) network said.

It is essential that all parties act upon the commitment in the joint statement to move with utmost haste to secure funding from international financial institutions to sustain workers’ incomes, the statement said.

This funding must serve to maintain workers in current employment relationships; deliver support to all workers who were making apparel or textiles at the outset of the crisis, regardless of job classification, contractual status, or migration status; and ensure that this support is sufficient to provide workers with at least their normal take-home income for as long as the crisis persists. This funding must be accompanied by time-bound commitments to strengthen social protection systems.

Labour rights organizations united in the CCC network are urging all brands and retailers that are still refusing to pay for orders to do so immediately and will be monitoring whether brands and retailers that have committed to do so are keeping their promise, the press release added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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