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This was published 6 years ago
Oxfam report calls on Australian retailers to pay factory workers a living wage
By Stephanie Gardiner
While Anju was working long hours at a clothes factory in Bangladesh, one of her young daughters was bitten by a dog.
So Anju and her husband, a rickshaw driver, sent their children far away to live a safer life with their grandparents, and the young couple only see their girls twice a year.
Garment worker Anju, who sews jumpers for 37¢ an hour in a factory in Bangladesh.Credit: GMB Akash/Panos/OxfamAUS
The 25-year-old sews jumpers sold in Australian shops including Katies and Rivers, earning 37¢ an hour, a wage that does not cover even basic costs like accommodation and food.
Her story is one of many included in aid organisation Oxfam's new report, What She Makes: Power and Poverty in the Fashion Industry, which estimates 4 per cent of the price of a garment sold in major Australian retailers is paid to the factory worker who made it.
Garment workers cross a street on their way to work in Dhaka, Bangladesh.Credit: GMB Akash/Panos/OxfamAUS
That equates to 40¢ from a $10 shirt, even if the worker is paid the legal minimum wage in countries like China and Indonesia, according to research by Deloitte Access Economics for Oxfam.
The earnings drop to 2 per cent for workers in Bangladesh – one of Australia's largest suppliers – where the minimum wage is lower, according to the report.
Oxfam is urging retailers such as Target, Kmart, Big W and Specialty Fashion Group, whose brands include Katies and Rivers, to ensure factory workers are being paid not just a minimum wage, but a living wage, which is enough to cover essentials like decent housing, food, and healthcare.
And even 10¢ could make the difference, the report estimates.
It says that if retailers ensured a living wage to factory workers and passed on the cost to consumers, prices would rise by 1 per cent, or 10¢ for a $10 T-shirt.
Oxfam argues that manufacturers, wholesalers and suppliers could jointly absorb the cost of paying living wages, so there would be no impact on prices, and the effect on margins would be minimal.
The report emphasises the fashion industry is worth billions of dollars, but is supported by poorly paid workers, who are usually young women with no power to challenge their conditions.
"A living wage is not a luxury but is in fact a minimum that all working people should be paid if they are to escape abject poverty," the report says.
The report acknowledges many Australian brands signed on to an agreement to ensure factories in Bangladesh are safe workplaces, after the Rana Plaza factory collapse in April 2013, which killed 1129 people.
"But it is now time to go further. Brands must publicly commit to paying their workers a living wage," the report says.
The retailers mentioned in this story were all contacted for comment. They have all signed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, developed by unions, non-profits and industry.
Specialty Fashion Group's website has a list of ethical standards, including that workers have an adequate and safe standard of living.
Cotton On also lists its ethical sourcing practices, including fair working conditions and wages, while Kmart and Target joined to establish an ethics policy, "protecting and respecting human rights".
The Woolworths Group's 2016 corporate responsibility report said BIG W "seeks to ensure that the people who are making the products we sell are being treated fairly".
Oxfam is also launching a company tracker to guide consumers on retailers' progress.