Financial Times

Foreign garment buyers urged to contribute to worker wages

By Dilshani Samaraweera

Foreign garment buyers are being asked to pay a few cents more for garments bought from Asian countries, including Sri Lanka – to help pay decent wages to garment workers. Worker representative groups in major Asian garment producing countries are launching a campaign called the ‘Asian Floor Wage Campaign’ in October, targeting international garment buying companies.

The campaign will also ask for support from US and EU bases trade unions and consumer movements as well. Trade unions in Sri Lanka say western garment retailers and international apparel brands can afford to pay a few cents extra for workers.

“Garment retailers and brands have such big profit margins, they can definitely afford to pay a few cents extra to help garment workers in Asian countries. Just as an example, if you take a shirt that is sold at US$ 22.50 to US consumers, 75% of that price is profit for the retailer. If the shirt is made in Sri Lanka the labour cost is only 2.8% of the price. Up to the CIF value it is only 23.1% of the retail price,” said the President of the Progress Union, Palitha Athukorala. The Progress Union is part of the trade union and NGO grouping called ALaRM that is heading the Asian Floor Wage campaign in Sri Lanka.

“We are asking international garment buyers to pay a little extra, to be given directly to the workers, not to the garment factories,” said Mr Athukorala. ALaRM says it is directly targeting foreign buyers of garments because most local garment factories are already operating under shrinking profit margins. “We are directly targeting the big international buyers because even in Sri Lanka most garment factories have very small profit margins. They have been forced by buyers to cut their selling prices,” said Mr Athukorala.
In Sri Lanka, women’s groups say the poor pay is forcing garment workers to cut down on already poor food intake and is hurting entire families.

“Garment workers in Sri Lanka are mainly women. So they are caretakers of their own families and in many cases, their extended families as well. Wages most of the time are not enough even for a single person to eat three square meals and also cover other costs like rent and transport,” said Ms Chamila Thushari, from Da Bindu, a women’s group.

The Asian Floor Wage proposed by the campaign sets a standard basic wage for garment workers across Asia, based on cost of living. It is currently calculated at 475 international dollars (using the purchasing power parity method of the World Bank) for Asan countries.

Based on a floor wage calculation for Sri Lanka, ALaRM says garment workers should be getting a basic monthly wage of Rs 16,705.75 (US $ 145.66), excluding overtime payments. But at this point, say women’s groups and trade unions, most garment sector workers earn, at most, about Rs 11,000, with over time work added. ALaRM says international garment buyers should cover the wage gap by paying a few cents extra to workers producing clothing in Sri Lanka.

Big western retailers like Walmart, Carrefour, Lidle, Aldi, Tesco, J C Penny’s and Marks and Spencer, control large shares of the western garment retail markets. This gives them bigger bargaining power on how much they pay local factories for garments they buy from Sri Lanka and other Asian countries. Right now there is growing pressure on local factories by big buyers, to reduce their selling prices. Big buying brands like Gap, Tommy Hilfiger, H&M also influence labour conditions, says ALaRM.

 
Top to the page  |  E-mail  |  views[1]
 
Other Financial Times Articles
Prompt action taken over IRD building issue
Vote-on-Account being considered, instead of budget
Carson’s foreign plantations set to grow bigger
CIMA/ICMA issue cleared by Consumer Affairs Authority
Foreign garment buyers urged to contribute to worker wages
COMMENT - President: Please meet helpless depositors
FEATURE - Disposal of state property needs straightforward methodology
IMF :Foreign inflows into bills and bonds not a risk to Sri Lanka
Lanka's electronics industry explores prospects of tapping Indian market
Right of reply - World Bank says not pulling out of tourism project
Cargills to open Jaffna store shortly
Concept of productivity-linked wage recognised in new plantation wage agreement
German/Hong Kong apparel manufacturer invests in Sri Lanka
MMBL Money Master helps former LTTE child soldiers
Ceylon Biscuits to launch ‘Nutri Line’ cereal bar
Top EU official meets Bogollagama
New institute preferred by international airlines, hotels
Local firms’ earnings to increase
IATA presents climate change proposals to heads of governments
ISO 22000 awarded to Aquafresh table water
New Asia Head of Sales at Nokia Siemens Networks
Vajira House Builders engages in confidence building with depositors after Court order
Emirates and V Australia announce code share agreement
Basic guide to ‘Investing in the Colombo Stock Market and other Financial Instruments’
SLPA awaits revised financial bid for container terminal
Moratuwa University creates awareness on transport and logistics sector
DECOM Project: Sri Lanka’s case for the Continental Margin
Jayasundera to return to the Treasury with SC relief
Relief finally for desperate Golden Key depositors
Employees’ Trust Fund to invest in Seylan IPO
Wind powered electricity generation projects halted
Lanka Hospitals (Apollo) to expand regionally and globally
Sri Lankan planters seek VAT relief
SEC files court case against Singalanka chairman, employee
Politicians, public servants must be taxed
Stockmarket News
Go Holidays partners with Ascott Group for exclusive apartments
Kalva Engineers India to offer NDT in Sri Lanka
Garment exports on down-trend
Neil Marine to start boat manufacturing in Jaffna
Janashakthi joins global giants to develop microinsurance
IT news
Wireless, high speed data transmission 'critical' for North and East
Anti-spy ware pioneer chooses Lanka as outsourcing destination
MillenniumIT offered a stake first, says CEO Tony Weerasinghe
Virtusa to introduce book of digital photography by employees
Intel introduces new main stream range to Sri Lanka
Computerization of state-owned land to minimize 'irregularities'

 

 
Reproduction of articles permitted when used without any alterations to contents and a link to the source page.
© Copyright 2009 | Wijeya Newspapers Ltd.Colombo. Sri Lanka. All Rights Reserved.| Site best viewed in IE ver 6.0 @ 1024 x 768 resolution