Garment exporters to counter West’s sweatshop allegations

Garment exporters to counter West’s sweatshop allegations
Economic Times, India

NEW DELHI: Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), a government-sponsored body, is launching a campaign to counter allegations in the western media of unfair labour practices being followed by Indian apparel makers. Of late, India’s biggest apparel exporters that supply to major brands have been fending off charges of running sweatshops by European NGOs and media houses. And before the impact of such allegations travel to the order books of exporters, AEPC has embarked upon a counter-strategy.

“We will hold roadshows in cities of western Europe where several of our buyers are located. We will try and convince them of the fair practices our apparel makers follow in their factories. We would show European buyers how Indian factories are inspected by the compliance agencies,’’ AEPC chairman Vijay Agarwal told ET.

The roadshows – the first of which is slated to be held in London – would be spread over three months beginning October. AEPC will also invite buyers and compliance agencies to inspect any manufacturing facility as and when they desire. Mr Agarwal, however, said he won’t invite the publication or the NGO which actually made these allegations. AEPC has also requested the government to write to the Indian embassies in European countries to actively counter allegations.

Recently, the UK-based daily The Guardian reported that the workers employed with India’s biggest garment exporters Gokaldas Export and Texport were not being paid enough to meet their basic needs. The paper alleged that the workers “were often made to work extra hours without pay to meet unattainable production targets.” It also alleged that “the mostly female workforce was harassed and bullied by male production managers and supervisors for not achieving targets and that they were refused time off when ill.”

The report alleged that the factories didn’t offer minimum international labour standards promised by the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), a code of conduct followed by almost all major apparel brands. Mr Agarwal says the ETI states that each worker should get “living wages”, but there is no legal or industry-agreed definition of ‘living wage’ and it varies from country to country and city to city.

“Garment makers follow the minimum wages set by different state governments.”