"Textile industry exploitation is still harsh reality"

Pakistani seamstresses only earn 3 euro cent per piece of clothing that requires hours of work. Despite the global “Clean and Honest Clothing” campaigns, the textile industry’s abysmal conditions are still rampant, according to De Standaard.

H&M, Mango and Gap

Malpractices in Asian textile factories, which often have disastrous and deadly consequences, have caused a lot of turmoil over the past few years. Many companies promised to help create better circumstances in countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, but poverty and exploitation are still rampant, particularly for seamstresses that work outside of the factory walls, usually as subcontractors.

For less than twenty euro per month, seamstresses work seven days a week from home, without any social security. Their contractors are not the factory owners, but subcontractors that outsource major international chains’ orders to home workers, according to secretary general Zehra Akhan, who works for the Home-Based Women Worker’s Federation. The International Labour Organization also confirmed last year that clothing with Cotton Belt, H&M, Mango and Gap logos were found in illegal textile factories. 

Several major European clothing brands, including H&M, decided to stay away from the annual industry summit in Bangladesh earlier this year. They wanted to protest the country’s lousy labour conditions. H&M told De Standaard it will further investigate the case, but that it basically only orders machine-made clothing from its Pakistan sources.