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According to an Oxfam report, Bangladeshi and Vietnamese women making clothes for the $ 23 billion Australian fashion sector are suffering from hunger because of wages as low as 51 cents an hour.
The aid group interviewed 470 garment workers employed in factories supplying brands such as Big W, Kmart, Target and Cotton On, and found that 100% of the workers surveyed in Bangladesh and 74% in Vietnam were unable to do so. to make ends meet.
"The survey uncovered the widespread payment of poverty wages and its impact on the lives of workers, mostly women, who make Australians love to wear clothes," said Helen Szoke, head of the agency. Oxfam Australia.
"Women who can not get treatment when they get sick, workers who can not afford to send their children to school, families who can not pay for their money to have enough to eat, people who sleep on the floor in overcrowded homes mothers separated from their children – these are just some of the common realities of the inability of big brands to guarantee payment from a living wage. "
Garment workers on the way to work in Dhaka. Of the workers interviewed by Oxfam in Bangladesh, 100% said they could not make ends meet. Photo: Fabeha Monir / Oxfam Australia
In Bangladesh, nine in ten surveyed workers surveyed said that they could not buy enough food for themselves and their families and were forced to skip meals or go into debt. In the same country, 72% of workers surveyed could not afford medical treatment, compared to 53% in Vietnam. In Bangladesh, one in three workers interviewed was separated from their children due to insufficient income.
The report details the fate of a 21-year-old Bangladeshi single mother, Tania, who works up to 12 hours a day in a factory supplying clothing to brands such as Kmart and earns $ 169 a month about 55 cents per hour.
She was forced to send her baby back to her village under the supervision of her parents and only sees her daughter twice a year.
Bangladeshi salesgirl Tania holds the only photo of her daughter that she only sees twice a year. Photo: Fabeha Monir / OxfamAUS
Another profiled worker, Chameli, earns about 51 cents an hour for her help work at a factory in Bangladesh that supplies clothes to brands such as Big W. Her family can not afford to send any of her three girls at school and the eldest, aged 14, also started working in a garment factory.
The family of five live in a crowded compound on the outskirts of Dhaka in a 3.6 by 2.4 meter room, where the youngest two girls sleep on the floor.
Chameli and her daughters live in a 3.6 x 2.4 meter room in Dhaka. Photo: Fabeha Monir / OxfamAUS
Deloitte Access Economics estimates that on average, only 4% of the price of a garment sold in Australia is used to pay the wages of the workers who made it.
Oxfam said that if brands absorb the cost of the living wage, it would be less than 1% of the price of clothing.
The research found that Australian firms' practices were helping to drive down wages.
"They negotiate prices aggressively, often skip contracts instead of working long-term with factories, reduce turnaround times and operate by separating their responsible employees from the standards and ethics of their purchasing teams, who negotiate directly with the factories "report says.
"A factory owner even reported the many steps taken by a company to protect his clothes in case of fire, but the lack of interest of the same company for fire safety measures for workspaces where people sew their clothes. "
Szoke said Oxfam did not advocate brand boycotts, but encouraged buyers to contact fashion retailers via social media to demand living wages for garment workers.
Cotton On, Kmart, Target and City Chic have recently announced their intention to earn a living wage for workers in their supply chains.
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