Report takes garment-factory audits to task
A non-profit organisation called Labour Behind The Label has published a report that takes the clothing industry’s audit systems to task.
It says audits fail to reflect accurately the lived experience of garment workers. Focusing on Pakistan, the new report, ‘Silenced’, claims that, in spite of extensive social audits that have delivered “decades of monitoring”, some workers in clothing factories are still being paid less than the legal minimum wage.
It says workers are reluctant to speak out about this for fear of losing their jobs.
The report is based on surveys of 255 garment workers in eight factories in Pakistan, and on in-depth conversations with auditors from local and international organisations that are employed by major global brands to monitor the industry there.
Key findings are that 65% of workers said they receive no pay-slips, and that 80% of them had no copy of their contracts and, therefore, no proof of the terms of their employment.
The report also found that two-thirds of reported having to work overtime, often under pressure. More than 60% of these garment workers say they do not receive the double payments they are entitled to by law for this overtime.
Labour Behind The Label has concluded that audit reports “routinely devalue workers’ testimony” because employees usually only offer rehearsed answers to auditors’ questions, often with management looking on.
The way audits work, the non-profit organisation has said, “systematically excludes workers from the very processes theoretically designed to protect them”.
