Garment factory in the Philippines. ILO/Flickr. (CC 2.0 by-nc-nd)
The challenge of governing labour standards globally has never been greater. Incidents such as Apple’s detection of ‘bonded servitude’ at its major subsidiary factories in China; the discovery of slave labour in the Thai prawn industry, which supplies Walmart, Tesco, and Costco; and the skyrocketing death rate for workers constructing stadiums for Qatar’s World Cup have drawn international attention to the severe labour exploitation that’s being fuelled by discount-driven consumer markets.
Activists have become increasingly adept at linking severe labour exploitation back to the big brand corporations, whose purchasing practices shape working conditions within global supply chains. For instance, the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, in conjunction with local trade union and labour rights organisations, recently traced conditions at the Next Collections factory in Bangladesh – where workers were “routinely forced … into 14-17 hour shifts, seven days a week amounting to workweeks of over 100 hours” and paid poverty level wages of $0.20 to $0.24 USD – back to clothing manufacturer Gap.
