Open letter calls on brands, govts, employers to keep workers safe

Over 50 organisations across the world have urged governments, employers and apparel brands to take immediate action to keep their workers safe against Covid-19.

The organisations representing Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi workers and international labour advocates issued an open letter on Tuesday making the call.

Observing the current situation of garment workers amid the wave of the delta variant, the letter said, “Garment workers' lives are put at risk by exempting workers from lockdown measures and making them work at full capacity in garment factories to meet orders of brands headquartered in countries with high vaccination rates.”

The current wave of Covid-19 and the spread of the Delta variant in South Asia is leading to a surge of severe illness and death in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

In August, Bangladesh saw a 20 per cent positive rate and its largest single-day death toll to date, while Sri Lanka faced doubling infection and death rates.

As both countries are key exporters of garments, workers in the apparel industry, who have little access to medical infrastructure or vaccines, have been especially hard hit with little support if they fall ill.

For economic reasons, the governments of both countries excluded garment workers from lockdown measures by categorizing them as essential workers; therefore, they must report to work in crowded factories where the virus can easily spread.

Despite constant calls from unions and international labour advocates since the beginning of the pandemic, neither national governments, nor local factory managers, nor international apparel brands that source from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have acted to provide workers with adequate occupational safety and health protections or social programs that would allow workers to stay home.

The failure to prioritize worker health and safety forces workers to choose between going into a factory without access to necessary PPE, with inadequate social distancing, and with minimal testing and vaccination or to face financial ruin without income or social benefits. It is untenable that Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi workers must choose between death and destitution.

The letter also highlighted some key points for factory managers, national governments, and international apparel brands to mitigate the issue.

It asked to include garment industry in lockdowns to protect citizens from Covid-19 and prevent garment production under the pretext of continuing essential services and expand vaccination and testing of garment workers where workers are working or being recalled to work.

It also suggested to implement the ILO Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) protection standards and Worker Rights Consortium guidelines for effective infection control in garment factories, with special attention to personal protective equipment (PPE), physical distancing, right of removal from danger and worker participation mechanisms, and adaptation of transport systems where needed.

The letter urged to ensure that workers who are forced to be absent from work due to new Covid-19 restrictions continue to receive their full wage in line with the demands of the Pay Your Workers campaign and allow workers to voluntarily refuse unsafe work and do not exclude those who stop working due to Covid-19 risks from unemployment, severance, or other economic rights and benefits during the crisis or penalize them with loss of contracts or work when the crisis subsides

National governments must expand testing and vaccination of garment workers, enable quarantining, increase social distancing requirements for factories, therefore, reducing the percentage of workers allowed in each factory, and order that all workers be paid full wages during lockdowns.

Additionally, governments should include the apparel sector in national lockdowns and apply the rules of their lockdowns equitably to protect garment workers during the pandemic, the letter said.

To implement the suggestions, apparel brands must extend lead times on orders during lockdowns to allow for the reduction in the workforce or temporary factory closures needed to keep workers safe.

Brands must monitor their supplier factories to ensure, together with their suppliers, that workers who make their clothes can do so safely and that those workers who are prevented from coming to work to comply with safety measures are nevertheless paid in full.

Factory owners must comply with all new health mandates, including ensuring that workers have access to PPE and can work at a safe distance. All workers must be paid their full wages during lockdowns.

Calling attention to importing apparel brands, the letter said they need to do their due diligence by monitoring the safety and payment of workers during the pandemic in every country they source from, to ensure that workers do not have to risk their lives to complete brands' orders.     

These steps are necessary actions that must be taken by international brands, national governments, and local factory managers to protect the lives and livelihoods of the workers whose labour they profit from, the letter said.

The letter also asked to take immediate action and steps be implemented without further delay. 

Signatory organisations of the letter in Bangladesh are Akota garment workers federation, Bangladesh Centre for Workers Solidarity (BCWS), Bangladesh Garment & Industrial Workers' Federation (BGIWF), Bangladesh Mukto Garment Sromik Union Federation (BIGUF), Bangladesh Revolutionary Garments Workers Federation (BRGWF), Garment Sramrk Sonhohiti  Federation/Garment Workers Solidarity Federation (GSSF/GWSF), National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF).