& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Dark under the lamp

Fashion brands violate labour laws in Eastern Europe

Refayet Ullah Mirdha
Garment workers are low paid everywhere in the world, even in European countries, due to flawed supply chain management of the global fashion industry, a survey has found.
The garment industry supply chain is 'unsustainable and unjust', no matter where it is, it said.
The report said Eastern European countries function as the 'cheap labour sewing backyard' for Western European fashion brands and retailers.
Despite a long history in garment production and highly skilled workforce, nearly all the countries producing clothes for major European retailers such as Hugo Boss, Adidas, Zara, H&M or Benetton are paid below the poverty line. Many workers rely on subsistence agriculture or a second job to survive.
The survey "Stitched up -- poverty wages for garment workers in Eastern Europe and Turkey" is a result of extensive research, including interviews with more than 300 workers, in 10 countries across the postsocialist Eastern Europe and Turkey. The Clean Clothes Campaign, a global rights group, released the survey report last week, saying the region of the ten countries is a relevant production hub for 27 EH countries.
Around half of the garments imported into the 27 countries are produced within the surveyed countries -Turkey, Georgia, Bulgaria, Romania, Macedonia, Moldova, Ukraine, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovakia - who employ some three million people in garment industry.
The report also revealed that the legal minimum wages only cover between 14 percent (Bulgaria, Ukraine and Macedonia) and 3 6 percent (Croatia) ofa basic living wage.
On the findings, Christa Luginbuhl, one of the writers of the report, said: "This research shows that on our own doorstep, European garment workers are working long hours for wages that cannot sustain even their most basic of needs."
"Complex and opaque supply chains are not an excuse for denying people their basic right to a living wage."
While brands such as Zara and H&M enjoy rising profits even du ri ng the crisis, working conditions in the production countries of the researched region have deteriorated particularly since 2008/2009, Luginbiihl said.
Workers in the region are also 'hampered by the inability of unions'tofight for their most basic rights, thesurvey found.
In the survey, a Croatian unionist stated that "unions do not have the opportunity to bargain for higher wages since they have to constantly fight illegal practices such as longterm unpaid overtime and unpaid social contributions or long-term unpaid wages."
Bettina Musiolek, co-author of the report, said: "We have come to expect that garment workers in Asia are being exploited with low wages and poor working conditions but what this report shows is that there are no good guys."
On the survey, IndustriALL, a global federation of unions, said garment workers in the area were subject to poverty wages, poor working conditions and long working hours, mirroring the experiences of workers in other parts of the world.
"It comes as no surprise that workers in Turkey and Eastern Europe are subjected to similar poor wages and working conditions as those in countries such as Bangladesh or Cambodia," said Jenny Holdcroft, policy director at IndustriALLGlobal Union.
The sourcing model for the garment industry is based on paying the lowest possible wages and so is fundamentally flawed. "Made in Europe is not a guarantee of better rights or wages for garment workers," Holdcroft said. A seamstress in Belarus spoke of working 0.45 euro per hour embroidering blouses for Zara for a contract that had been outsourced