Global apparel buyers’ business practices, including low purchase price and shorter lead time, fuel labour abuses in manufacturing countries like Bangladesh, revealed a recent report of Human Rights Watch (HRW).The HRW called for clothing and footwear brands to end the practices that incentivise suppliers to do the opposite.”Many global brands tout their commitment to ensuring rights-respecting workplaces in the factories that produce their goods,” it said.But they undercut their efforts with relentless pressure on suppliers to drive down prices or produce faster, according to the report.”Many suppliers respond to those pressures with abusive cost-cutting methods that harm workers.”The HRW launched the report titled ‘Paying for a Bus Ticket and Expecting to Fly: How Apparel Brands’ Purchasing Practices Drive Labour Abuses’ on the sixth anniversary of Rana Plaza collapse.The country’s worst industrial disaster claimed some 1,138 lives, mostly garment workers, on April 24, 2013.The HRW report is based largely on interviews with garment suppliers, social compliance auditors and industry experts, workers and trade export data analysis for key producing markets from Asia.It argued that global brands’ poor sourcing and purchasing practices could be a huge part of the root cause for rampant labour abuses in apparel factories.Cost-cutting methods, illicit subcontracts with facilities with rampant workplace abuses and shorter time for manufacturing, coupled with poor forecasting, unfair penalties and poor payment terms, exacerbate risks for such abuses.The abuses include wage violations, requiring workers to work faster and without adequate breaks, and dangerous or unhealthy work conditions.According to the report, bad purchasing practices often directly undermine efforts the brands are making to try to ensure rights-respecting conditions in factories.They squeeze suppliers so hard financially that the suppliers face powerful incentives to cut costs in ways that exacerbate workplace abuses and heighten brands’ exposure to human rights risks.”Many brands demand their suppliers maintain rights-respecting workplaces, but then incentivise them to do the opposite,” it added.Brands often struggle to effectively monitor workplace conditions across their sprawling global supply chains.The marketplace requires clothing brands to produce and sell goods faster than ever in response to changing consumer demands.But brands risk fuelling abuses if they shrink time for workers without adequately monitoring a factory’s capacity or giving workers adequate time that factors in national holidays and weekends.The HRW finds that many brands do not have written contracts, or use one-sided contracts without allowing for flexible delivery dates.The report said the nominal price per unit here has dropped or stagnated since 2014.The highest proportion of suppliers accepting orders below production costs owing to pressure from buyers is from Bangladesh, it added.The report identified key steps the apparel brands should take to correct poor purchasing practices and mitigate the risks of supply chain abuses.The HRW recommendations included adopting and publishing policies on responsible sourcing, integrating them across all departments and publishing lists of their factories.It also called for the brands to re-evaluate their use of purchasing agents and make sure their contracts with suppliers are written and fair.
