Frequently Asked Questions for Consumers
Why #PayYourWorkers?
Garment workers who are already surviving on poverty wages are often those who pay the highest price when something unexpected happens. Brands, factories, and others can all push the responsibility down the supply chain until workers are left with nothing. When the pandemic hit, many brands refused to pay for orders already placed or even produced, and consequently factories didn’t their workers their wages or severance in case of factory closure. After the devastating earthquake in Turkey in February 2023, brands again left factories without orders or financial support, causing workers to struggle financially in what was already a time of personal disaster. With the climate crisis raging on, we’re likely to see more and more catastrophes leading to factory closures and sudden changes in demand. Under our #PayYourWorkers demand, we are urging brands and suppliers to pay into a fund to ensure that workers are never again left penniless when the unexpected happens.
Why #RespectLabourRights?
Garment workers have often been able to improve their pay and working conditions through organised struggle. To prevent this from happening in their factories, many factory owners resort to extreme measures such as suspending or dismissing workers who try to organise or even closing while unionised units. This robs workers of the best means to stand up for their own rights and defend themselves. Union busting thrives in times of economic upheaval. Factory owners are more inclined to practice union repression when pressure on them increases, for example when brands are withdrawing orders, demanding discounts or unrealistic lead times, or stop paying at all. Also factory closures meant to get rid of a union will more easily go unnoticed if many other factories are in financial trouble. Protecting workers’ right to organise and bargain collectively is crucial to ensure they can stand together in times of hardship. This is why the #RespectLabourRights demand urges brands and suppliers to sign a legally binding agreement to create a mechanism where workers can turn safeguard their right to organise and that will hold brands and factories accountable to their promises.
What are the demands of the Pay Your Workers – Respect Labour Rights campaign?
We’re urging brands and retailers to sign a legally binding agreement to:
Make sure workers are never again left penniless if their factory goes bankrupt, by signing onto a negotiated severance guarantee fund; and
Protect workers’ right to organise and bargain collectively.
How should brands pay their workers?
Most garment brands do not directly employ garment workers, but they are nevertheless directly responsible for working conditions through their refusal to pay more for the products they buy from factories and through the extraordinary power they hold in supply chains. Brands should therefore calculate and settle the outstanding wages owed to workers, as well as pay into a severance guarantee fund that will ensure workers who lose their jobs are paid their legally owed severance. This will enable workers who lost their jobs because of a factory closure or mass dismissal and were not paid to file a claim. Additionally, the fund will support the improvement of national social protection systems in the countries where signatory brands and suppliers operate.
How does this agreement support labour rights?
By signing the agreement, companies agree to respect workers’ rights, including the right to organise and bargain collectively. It will create a legally binding mechanism to hold signatory brands and factories to this promise and to allow workers to complain about the repression they are facing and make sure factories and brands have to solve these issues.
Why is it important that the agreement is legally binding?
It’s clear that brands and factories will only keep their commitments if there are real penalties attached. We have too often seen in the past that sweeping promises are made, in order to be broken. H&M in 2013 said it would pay workers in its supply chain a living wage by 2018, but still, its workers are toiling on poverty wages. Many other brands have written wonderful commitments to living wages and better working conditions in their codes of conduct, but reality still looks as bleak as before, and when asked many of these brands even fail to speak out for higher minimum wages. In contrast, binding agreements, like the International Safety Accord in Bangladesh and Pakistan, and the binding agreement on gender-based violence in Lesotho have brought real and tangible changes for workers – because brands can be sued in court if they don’t comply.
How much will this cost brands?
Brands will be asked to pay a premium of 0.5% of what they pay on a yearly basis for orders. This will cost brands no more than ten cents per t-shirt to meet all the obligations foreseen in the Pay Your Workers – Respect Labour Rights agreement.