Retail

Brief steps by brands, retailers not enough: IndustriALL

31 Mar '20

2 min read

Pic: Industriall global union

Copenhagen-based IndustriALL Global Union recently said unless measures are taken by governments now to protect factories and workers to enable them to survive the COVID-19 crisis, the short-term decisions being taken by brands and retailers to renege on existing contracts will end up destroying the very businesses they are seeking to protect.

“Brands, employers and governments must come together urgently with trade unions to find ways to support garment workers during this unprecedented period to ensure the future viability of the industry once the crisis has passed,” IndustriALL said in a statement.

It has written to all its affiliates that organise garment workers asking for information on the numbers of factories that are being closed down, the number of workers affected and any measures being taken by governments and employers to mitigate the impacts.

Measures announced by companies to protect the wages of retail and other direct workers are to be welcomed, but the security and wellbeing of the workers in their supply chains, who have made the products on which their business is built, must not be ignored, the statement said.

There are three critical stages for which interventions are needed: payment of wages to workers now for orders that have been filled, but will not be paid for by the brand customers; payment to workers during periods of factory closures, either from lack of orders or from government measures against COVID-19; and support for restarting production.

Many countries have already reached the first and the second stages, the statement added.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)

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