Transcript Sports Products and Decent Work

Sports Products and Decent
Work
Ashling Seely
ITGLWF
“Race to the Bottom”
Unregulated globalisation in the textile,
clothing and leather sector has destroyed jobs
in traditional manufacturing areas and
transported them to places free from legal
restraint. Sportswear is often produced in
factories and workplaces where insecurity,
harsh treatment, long working hours, low pay,
and abuse are the norm.
Child Labour
Children as young as 4
produce sportswear for
export to Europe &
North America
They often work in the
most appalling
conditions
Many die before
reaching adulthood
Child labour is not a phenomenon that can be dealt with in isolation, it
is both a cause and consequence of poverty and low levels of social
welfare.
Hazardous working conditions
In Bangladesh TB is
x2 as common
amongst garment
workers
Many workers only
see PPE when
auditors visit – result
is 40,000 fingers lost
annually in Pearl
River Delta alone
Garib & Garib Factory Fire
• 22 workers dead and 50
more injured
• Poor ventilation, exits
locked and stairwell blocked
• Multinational sourcing there
says their audit revealed no
serious safety concerns
• In past 5 years alone, over
150 workers have died in
similar disasters in
Bangladesh
Poverty wages...
...for extremely long working hours
A sportswear worker in Vietnam works 10 to 13 hours a
day with only two days off a month for daily earnings of
US$ 2.05
Amount Nike paid basketball star LeBron James in a
single year: $13,000,000
No job security
Modern slavery
Recruitment fee = loan + interest = chain = bonded labour
Denial of fundamental human
right to unionise
Menderes Tekstil
Union leaders and
their families laid off
or transferred
Those who agreed to
resign from union
reinstated
Real change
• Move beyond codes of conduct and
social auditing
• Stronger labour legislation better
enforced by governments
• Commitment from retailers and
employers to share the benefits of
production
What must sportswear brands do?
• Be transparent – disclose supplier locations
• Favour suppliers where decent work exists:
– Unionised workforce
– All work in house
– Collective agreement
– Living wage for normal work week
– No contract labour
What can consumers do?
“...all of us as consumers must pay greater
attention to the conditions of manufacture
of the items we purchase, insist on
guarantees that production conditions
complied with international requirements
and refuse to buy any fashion item where
that guarantee is not forthcoming.”
Neil Kearney
Thank you
www.itglwf.org