Supporting Employers Against Worker Unionisation - GAP, Tesco, H&M, Walmart

Rajasthan, northwestern India’s largest state, is popular for its palaces, desert and folk arts, but notorious for child marriages and the poor social status of women. In June 2014, its government amended several laws - including the Factories Act of 1948, Contract Labor Act of 1970 and Industrial Disputes Act of 1947 - to restrict worker unionization, while relaxing employer obligations after they lay workers off.
The Indian government might also modify these laws, as the political party governing Rajasthan and India prefers deregulating companies and favoring employers and industrial growth over human rights.

 These modified laws adversely impact garment workers, most of whom work in inhumane conditions.
“Married at 15 and a mother a year later, I have toiled in exploitative garment factories for two decades, as I need money but lack skills,” said a 38-year old woman from Ramanagaram district, near Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka, a state in southwestern India. She is among Bangalore’s 400,000 garment workers, who manufacture many domestic and international brands that are sold locally and exported. Women comprise over 80 percent of Indian apparel workers concentrated in Bangalore, Tirupur in southern India, and Gurgaon in northern India.

Garment workers sew nearly 150 pieces an hour, and make up for any shortfall in daily targets without overtime pay, even if pregnant or unwell. If they don’t meet their quotas, they face deductions from their wages and, sometimes, lose their jobs. Wages are currently around 252 rupees, or $4.00 per a day. A few employers do not make their mandatory payments to the provident fund, or social security, for their employees, which amounts to 12 percent of their monthly salaries. Furthermore, male supervisors abuse women workers, verbally, sexually and physically.

Typically between 18-25 years old, Karnataka’s women garment workers are minimally skilled and belong to socioeconomically disadvantaged families in villages and small towns, who share overcrowded accommodation in Bangalore. They stitch while standing or sitting upright for around nine hours a day with poor lighting and ventilation, and minimal breaks for using the bathroom and meals; they often suffer from backaches, respiratory ailments and itching.
When garment factories close without prior notice due to financial mismanagement and labor irregularities, workers lose the wages owed to them.

“When I sustained an electric shock in November 2004, while working at Bangalore’s Texport Creations, compensation from my employer, was meager,” said Nagaratna, a seasoned garment worker. “Additionally, the company altered facts before the chief inspector of factories and escaped a penalty.” Bombay Rayons - another supplier, which manufactures GAP, Tesco and H&M - was questioned for violating labor and gender rights for locking up women workers who had asked for increased wages and better working conditions in December 2008. It never apologized to its employees or compensated them for the wrongful actions.

read on here about how they are organising