INTRODUCTION
Every day, we see new fashion trends, across the internet, swiftly flooding the fashion world. Fast fashion, as a model, has been completely changed, it has also changed the dynamics of how we consume clothing. The promise of affordable, trendy clothes has made it irresistible for millions of consumers, worldwide. Yet, when we reveal back the curtain, from beneath the supposed affordability, here lies a disturbing reality, which is the exploitation of labour forces. Fast fashion as a business model, is based on the regular violations of human rights, which often range from, hazardous working conditions, to insufficient wages which are unlivable for most workers. Such exploitative practices are not just out-of-the-order mistakes, but rather they are woven into the very model of fast fashion.
This blog analyses the legal and systematic barriers that allow such injustice to exist and also analyzes the pressing need for a stronger mechanism to hold those responsible and accountable for their actions.
LABOUR EXPLOITATION: A VIOLATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS
To understand labour exploitation, we must first examine the aspects involved in this cycle. The factors, which are involved in labour exploitation, often range from, unsafe working conditions to substandard wages, as well as child labour and forced labour. Garment workers are often forced to work for long hours within environments that are essentially dangerous and that have no care for the physical condition of the garment workers and their safety. These conditions are mostly found in areas that have poorly ventilated factories and are often overcrowded; this therefore, increases the chances of accidents occurring, such as fires or collapse of the factories.[1]
Even apart from the physical dangers garment workers face, they are quite often paid wages that are far below what is considered a living wage. The wages are so meagre, even though they often produce clothing for global fashion giants. The minimum quantity of wages makes it impossible for them to afford necessities, such as food, housing, and health care. A 2021 report, by the Clean Clothes campaign, found out that garment workers in South Asia, earn less than a living wage, this only further traps them into a cycle of property that has already been proven very hard to escape.1 For most individuals, this is not just a temporary struggle in their lives, but it is a life sentence to poverty. Wages do not even meet the basic cost of living conditions in the regions that the individuals themselves reside in.
Child labor, especially is a concerning problem with the fast fashion industry. In many countries, young children work in garment factories under very exploitative conditions. These children are exposed to long hours of hard work and they are often dealing with hazardous materials or hazardous machines. According to the International Labour Organization, which has taken an estimate of almost 170 million children from all over the world, who work as child labourers, many of them work in industries that supply to fast fashion brands. This is not only a violation of basic human rights, but this also keeps them away from having a chance to gain an education or even the opportunity to have a better life.[2]
There is also the matter regarding the exploitation of women in the garment industry. About almost 80% of the global workforce in these garment industries are women. Women are often faced with many different forms of gender-based violence which often ranges from harassment to discrimination based on work, and there are hardly any effective measures in place, that can help them to report any issue or to seek any kind of remedy. According to Human Rights Watch, female garment workers who work in these garment factories, are often frequently subjected to, verbal abuse, sexual harassment, or even physical violence from their superiors or even their coworkers.[3] Gender inequality in fast fashion is not just a matter of a disparity in pay, but it is a cycle of physical and emotional abuse, which leads to exploitation and causes the vulnerability of women in this fast fashion model.
An important cause to analyze labour exploitation in garment factories would be, the fast design-to market-cycle, which is an important factor in the fast fashion industry. Brands have new collections that they launch, which appear in the market in a matter of weeks. This cycle demands, that industries produce large volumes of clothing in a record-based time. Such pressures force factories to cut corners, often regarding labour standards, and this further leads to an increased risk of exploitation or the continuation of the exploitation cycle. This need for cost-cutting often also results in garment workers being forced to work overtime without any compensation, facing unsafe working conditions, or even being subjected to abuse.
There is a lack of transparency in these global supply chains and this lack of transparency only furthers the opportunity for labour exploitation. We often see major brands, that employ these complex networks of subcontractors, which makes it nearly impossible to trace where and under what conditions the clothes are being produced. This lack of transparency continues as subcontractors will further subcontract their work to much smaller and unregulated factories, which further obscures the reality of who is responsible. Hence as it currently stands, garment workers are going to continue to be at risk of labour exploitation; as brands can easily dismiss any involvement in these abusive supply chains, as there is absenteeism of traceability and this allows for an easy escape from accountability by the firms which are involved, which again continues the cycle of exploiting the working class for profit.
CASE STUDIES: LEARNING FROM REAL-WORLD EXAMPLES
The Rana Plaza tragedy which occurred in 2013, remains a profound example of fast fashion at a human cost. This plaza located in Bangladesh, was a building that housed multiple garment factories, which supplied to various, major global brands. Despite structural cracks that were very visible, workers were forced to continue in their operations and unfortunately, this caused the building to collapse over 1100 workers lost their lives and even thousands more were injured. Investigations into this case showed that there was already a weak enforcement of safety regulations, and there was a lack of corporate oversight and these reasons further contributed to the disaster. This incident served as a wake-up call for the general public and also sparked a global movement. This helped to further efforts to improve the factory conditions, yet to the current date, these reforms remain very poorly enforced.[4]
In contrast, we can analyze the United States, California’s SB62 also known as the Garment Worker Protection Act, which marked significant progress in labor rights. It was enacted in 2022, and the law states that it aims to eliminate any exploitative piece-rate pay systems and hold those who have wronged accountable.[5]
Hence after analyzing both cases, we could conclude that there is still a need for a stronger and enforceable legal framework that can hold companies accountable, as after its analysis, it shows how there is progress yet it also highlights the gaps that exist in addressing the labour exploitation and the inability in holding those who have wronged in the industry accountable.
SOLUTIONS: STRIKING A BALANCE BETWEEN RIGHTS AND INDUSTRY PRACTICES
Addressing the labour exploitation practices requires a multifaceted approach with the help of many. This can be done through strengthening legal frameworks and doing so has become quite significant. These legal frameworks should enforce mandatory transparency laws that can adopt global labor standards and they should also be able to enable penalties for those who do not obey.
Corporations can also have third-party audits, and can also have these reports publicly reported to ensure that labor practices are ethical, and the labor laws should ensure that these ethical certifications should go beyond marketing and should all reflect the worker’s welfare.
Educating the consumers can also provide a benefit against these exploitative practices. For example, initiatives such as fashion revolutions, and #WhoMadeMyClothes promoted ethical shopping and the consumers created a demand for transparency and fair practices.[6] Together these measures can lay the foundations for a more equitable and sustainable fashion industry that goes hand in hand with appropriate labor laws and their reforms.
CONCLUSION
The business of the fast fashion industry is a pretense because it gives us trendy clothes at low prices yet the same is produced by exploitation of the garment workers. As consumers we do not see the true cost of clothing; while we do have legislations like California’s SB62 they are still an exception in many, supply chains still operate with intentional opacity to avoid direct liability by operating on legal loopholes and avoiding corporate responsibility and until unless transparency and legal accountability are enforced garment workers will still be exploited.
Ultimately the problem of fast fashion highlights a much larger ethical question for us as well as for how long are we willing to turn a blind eye for just for the sake of convenience. Change has to be real and that can start by holding companies responsible for the true cost of ethical production rather than passing them along. The challenge lies in not only exposing these injustices but also changing and restructuring the industry in such a way so that these injustices have remedy as well.
Author(s) Name: Twesha Khambra (Kirit P. Mehta School of Law, NMIMS, Mumbai)
References:
[1] Clean Clothes Campaign, Asia Wage Report 2021: Living Wage Gap (2021) https://cleanclothes.org/poverty-wages accessed 26 December 2024.
[2] International Labour Organization, Supply Chain Transparency: Key to Labour Rights (2020) https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/@asia/@ro-bangkok/documents/instructionalmaterial/wcms_725761.pdf accessed 26 December 2024.
[3] ‘No Rest for the Weary’: Abuse and Exploitation in Garment Factories (2020) https://www.hrw.org accessed 26 December 2024.
[4] Transparency International, ‘Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza: A Tragedy of Supply Chain Opacity’ (2021) https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/rana-plaza-tragedy-fast-fashion-deadly-corruption-problems accessed 26 December 2024.
[5] SB62 Garment Worker Protection Act 2021 (California Legislative Information) https://www.dir.ca.gov/dlse/Garment/#:~:text=The%20Garment%20Worker%20Protection%20Act%20(SB62),-Senate%20Bill%2062&text=The%20new%20law%20addresses%20proper,to%20be%20paid%20piece%20rate accessed 26 December 2024.
[6] Fashion Revolution, Who Made My Clothes? Transparency in the Fashion Industry (2023) https://www.fashionrevolution.org/fashion-transparency-index-2023/ accessed 26 December 2024.
