GATWU prez urges govt to strengthen labour laws

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Dr Pratibha R, currently the President of the Garment and Textile Workers’ Union (GATWU), presented her PhD thesis on women's labour in the era of globalisation with a specific focus on garment workers at the Alternative Law Forum (ALF) on Infantry Road in the city on Friday.

The union leader noted that while the garment industry is considered to function within the organised sector, where all the labour laws laid down must apply, employers with the assistance of the state find loopholes in order to evade them. Pratibha said that the state has over 780 factories manufacturing garments and a labour force of over 5 lakh. A significant population of these workers, about 60-70 percent, are women.

She threw light on how the garment industry flourished in the city during the 70’s as a result of globalisation and noted that it was Gokul Das that brought the industry to the forefront. She said that initially, the workers followed the piece system, where the workers were paid according to the number of garment pieces they managed to produce in a day.

Later, the batch system, where workers were assigned to produce a single product for a particular garment (for example, a collar or a sleeve) was brought in to maintain uniformity in the production, in turn making their work monotonous and unskilled.

Speaking with regard to globalisation, Pratibha noted the Multifiber Arrangement (MFA), an international trade agreement involving clothing and textiles established in 1974, imposed quotas on the amount of clothing and textile that developing countries could export to developed nations. When this was abolished in 2004, it allowed brands to hire labour from developing countries at cheap costs without any restrictions.

She said that brands now assign their contracts through bidding and focus only on the profitable aspect of business, hiring employers who promise the most production. The employers in turn pressurise the workers to produce the most while providing nothing in return.

She explained that over 75 percent of the profits are taken by the brand while 25 percent is received by the employer. After all the manufacturing costs are deducted by the employer, the worker receives close to one percent of the profit made. GAP, Adidas, Levis and H&M are among the famous brands that have their garments produced in Bengaluru.

She added that the factories are a reflection to patriarchy as the women are not provided with a position of power or are allowed to dissent. Sexual harassment cells are useless, she said, as they are not democratically put together but instead run by puppets of the management. Basic facilities like a creche and lawful procedures like wage revision every 3-5 years are not followed.