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In Pakistan, leather is produced under deplorable conditions. Labourers work for long hours for low wages. Many suffer damage ttheir health, working with chemicals and unsafe heavy machinery. The European Union (EU) is the single most important export destination for Pakistani leather, and a sizeable portion of these imports goes tthe Netherlands. Pakistan falls under the EU’s Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP+), a trade scheme that aims tstimulate the protection of human rights by exempting specific developing countries from trade tariffs, on the condition that they ratify and implement core international conventions relating thuman and labour rights, the environment and good governance. While Pakistan’s leather industry has profited from this, interviews with workers reveal that they are still facing a wide range of labour rights violations.

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The Stop Child Labour Coalition commissioned the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) tcarry out this research intwage levels and working conditions in the export-oriented garment industry in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The research specifically looks intthe relationship between wages and working conditions of adult workers and the extent twhich their children attend school or are engaged in paid/unpaid work. The objective of the research was tassess how the wages and working conditions of adult workers in export-oriented garment factories affect workers’ abilities tmeet basic needs, including housing, food and education. The aim is tanswer the following questions: Are the wages of adult garment workers sufficient tcover their family’s basic needs, including schooling costs for their children? Are the children of garment workers engaged in paid work in order tadd tthe family income sthat the family’s basic needs are covered? Are children of garment workers engaged in any unpaid work (e.g. household work)? If the children of garment workers dnot attend school, what are the reasons for this?

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The garment industry is one of the most labour-intensive manufacturing industries in the world. Clothing companies are constantly on the look-out for production locations that can make clothes quickly and at low costs. Over the past few years, Myanmar has rapidly become a popular sourcing destination for the garment industry – due ta huge pool of cheap labour and favourable import and export tariffs. However, working conditions in this industry are far from acceptable. Labour rights violations are rife. Workers whare bold enough may file complaints or resort topen protests, news of which sometimes finds its way intinternational media. More often, workers toil on in silence. As well as describing the most pressing problems, the authors of this report offer suggestions for constructive ways forward thead off a crisis before it escalates.

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Thousands of Syrians whhave fled their war-torn home country are working in Turkey’s apparel factories. Most of them dnot have work permits and are desperate tearn an income, which makes them highly vulnerable texploitation by employers. Many Syrians in the Turkish garment sector are getting paid below the minimum wage, even though they work long hours in unhealthy and dangerous conditions. Cases of employment of Syrian refugee children have alsbeen reported. Turkey is the third-largest non-EU garment-exporting country tSweden and Norway after China and Bangladesh, and an important sourcing market for the Nordic clothing brands H&M, KappAhl, Lindex, Gina Tricot and Varner (BikBok, Cubus, Carlings, Dressman, Urban et al.). This study investigates how these five brands are tackling the risk of abuse and discrimination of Syrian refugees in their supply chains in Turkey.

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The garment and footwear industry stretches around the world. Clothes and shoes sold in stores in the US, Canada, Europe, and other parts of the world typically travel across the globe. They are cut and stitched in factories in Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, or other regions. Factory workers in Bangladesh or Romania could have made clothes only weeks agthat consumers elsewhere are eagerly picking up. When global supply chains are opaque, consumers often lack meaningful information about where their apparel was made. A T-shirt label might say “Made in China,” but in which of the country’s thousands of factories was this garment made? And under what conditions for workers? There is a growing trend of global apparel companies adopting supply chain transparency—starting with publishing the names, addresses, and other important information about factories manufacturing their branded products. Such transparency is a powerful tool for promoting corporate accountability for garment workers’ rights in global supply chains. Transparency can ensure identification of global apparel companies whose branded products are made in factories where bosses abuse workers’ rights. Garment workers, unions, and nongovernmental organizations can call on these apparel companies ttake steps tensure that abuses stop and workers get remedies. This report takes stock of supply chain transparency in the garment industry four years after the industry disasters in Bangladesh and Pakistan that shook the global garment industry. Tbuild momentum toward supply chain transparency and develop industry minimum standards, a coalition of labor and human rights groups asked 72 companies tagree timplement a simple Transparency Pledge. It alsasked that companies declining tcommit tthe Pledge provide reasons for choosing not tdso. Where companies engaged with the coalition, the coalition alssought additional information about their existing transparency practices. This report explains the logic and the urgency behind the Pledge and describes the responses we received from the companies contacted.

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