Are the core labor andemployment laws failing to protect the apparel industry workers?

 

Labor force constitutes themajor population in any country. While they live their lives in darkness, thecreamy layer of the society enjoy the benefits of their hardships. In theindustrial sector, apparel industry especially, is more labor intensive. As anemployee they do have certain rights to protect them. Right to be paid at leastthe minimum wages, right to get overtime payment, right for appropriate workingconditions, right for meal breaks, and accessing workers compensation wheninjured. Are they getting all their privileges? No. Not at all. The sheerbreadth of the issue, and its profound impact on the workers sufferingsignificant economic hardships, demand an urgent attention.

 

Wage Theft in the ApparelIndustry:

 

Wage theft is any under paymentor non-payment of workers. This includes violations of minimum wage laws,non-payment, non-payment of overtime charges, working off the clock etc. Apparelindustry is more labor intensive, and hence is most often accused of poorwages, and unsafe working conditions. Most of the low wage workers arevulnerable to wage theft, where they are made to work more and are paid veryless, or they are not paid for their overtime work. In some industries, workersare made to work for even up to 80 hours for a week without proper overtimepayments. Female workers are more prone to wage violation comparatively overmale workers. Due to these prevalent working conditions, garment industriescame to be termed as sweatshops. These sweatshops prosper on the contracts madewith multinational companies. They involve working with cheap manufacturingcosts, and lax labor laws. Workers here are made to work for long hours underhazardous and inhuman working conditions. In many countries, the minimum wageis not adequate to lift them out of poverty.

 

A recent survey about the laborsituation in US revealed that 77% of the respondents were not paid any legalovertime payments. More than one third of them stated that they worked morethan 40 hours in a week, and 93% of them did not receive any payment for it. 69%of the workers surveyed said that they came early, and stayed late without anyextra payments. 90% of them stated that they got a very short or sometimes nobreak at all during their long working hours. Investigations in a number ofcountries clearly indicate this to be an unfortunately common practice in manycountries. Despite, the overall data for wage theft of the global apparelindustry is not available, the industry is still considered as a sweatshopindustry, due to its labor intensiveness, and prevalent possibilities for laborexploitation.

 

 

The need for work force protection has become more acute, and Government enforcement is a viable cornerstone for restricting workplace violations. As the wage debates reach the next level, calculations are done and a minimum amount is decided, below which a worker wage cannot be paid. In India the proposed floor wages are 1.6 times higher, whereas in Sri Lanka it is three times higher. In Bangladesh, the proposed wages are more than six times higher.

 

The best inoculation for workers is to know their right, and have status on how to assert them with sufficient legal resources. Workers in all the countries need better labor law enforcement, and strong labor movements to increase labor standards.

 

References:

1.       &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(2632)%>" target="_blank">http://www.wagetheft.org

2.       &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(2632)%>" target="_blank">http://www.iwj.org

3.       &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(2632)%>" target="_blank">http://www.allbusiness.com

4.       &sec=article&uinfo=<%=server.URLEncode(2632)%>" target="_blank">http://laborrightsblog.typepad.com