The Pay Your Workers campaign warns brands against repeating pandemic-era practices of leaving suppliers to fend for themselves.
As Turkey and Syria recover from the devastating earthquakes in early February, Pay Your Workers urges international brands to support garment workers in the region. Started by the Clean Clothes Campaign, Pay Your Workers is a coalition of 283 trade unions and labor rights organizations that came together during the pandemic to advocate for garment workers’ rights. In a statement published by the organization earlier this week, the group urges retailers to “pay their suppliers on time; to ensure workers receive their full, regular wages (or severance in the case of layoffs); and to make sure factories are not reopened until they are verified as safe.”
Turkey houses one of the largest textile and apparel industries worldwide. Badly-hit regions such as Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras are significant for the country’s garment manufacturing sector. Reportedly, a third of Turkey’s apparel and textile workers are employed in the affected provinces, while over 70 international brands source from the region of Turkey affected by the earthquake. These include Benetton, Boohoo, New Look, and Primark.
According to the statement by Pay Your Workers, many factories in the earthquake-hit region reopened “recklessly soon” as they feared being financially penalized by brands if they delivered orders late. “One week after the first earthquake, factory owners in the heavily affected areas were already urging workers, many of whom had lost family members or their homes, to return to work,” reports Pay Your Workers. Workers of the Marbit Tekstil factory in Adana – one of the regions affected by the earthquake – protested earlier this month due to being dismissed and then offered compensation far below what they were owed. Notably, the factory produces for Zara.
During the pandemic, many retailers responded to the crisis by canceling or delaying orders from garment factories, effectively shifting the economic burden onto garment workers. Pay Your Workers was born as a call for apparel brands to ensure the payment of all workers in their supply chain.
Having witnessed the effect of the pandemic on the garment manufacturing industry, Pay Your Workers has reason to believe that some brands that manufacture in Turkey may now refuse to pay suppliers for late deliveries, despite it being an unavoidable result of the earthquake. “It is critical that brands do not repeat COVID-19 pandemic era patterns of forcing suppliers to fend for themselves,” reads the statement.
In closing, the organization urged brands to ensure severance pay and wage continuation, accept delays without penalty, work with suppliers to assist displaced and injured workers, reopen factories only after a thorough inspection, and rail against discrimination towards Syrian refugees in the workforce. “Brands should not force workers and suppliers in Turkey, who are already dealing with the human tragedy of the earthquake, to bear the financial burden of the crisis, while the brands themselves can easily absorb profit losses,” says the coalition.
