Millions 'are suffering for cheap goods'.
By Stephen Hull
The Metro, UK - 9 February, 2004.
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Picture: AP |
WORKING conditions for millions of women have worsened over the past 20 years as international companies roam the globe for cheap labour, a charity claimed yesterday. Many women work long hours in unhealthy conditions on short-term contracts, with little access to benefits or protection, says Oxfam International.
In China, women are forced to work up to 250 hours unpaid overtime a month, it claims, while farmers in South Africa pay very low wages to seasonal labourers. Companies such as Tesco, Taco Bell and Wal-Mart - owner of Asda - were singled out. They should radically alter the way they worked with producers and negotiated prices, said Oxfam.
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A child forced to make mud bricks 7 days a week. |
'Globalisation could be a force for good. It could actually help millions out of poverty. But, at the moment, only certain people are getting the benefits. 'People at the end of the supply chain - the workers who are mainly women - should be getting their fair share,' said spokesman Lysbeth Holdoway. Oxfam released its report, Trading Away Our Rights, in Cambodia , which is shedding its sweatshop image thanks to monitoring by a United Nations agency.
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Sajal Das makes a pot at his home in Agartala, northeastern India. The seven-year-old makes 100 pots a day, earning 30 rupees (35p). "I call upon each one of you to stop employing children as workers and actively encourage children to join schools." Manmohan Singh, Indian Prime Minister Picture: RAMAKANTA DEV / AP |
British actress Minnie Driver leant her support to the campaign by paying visits to Cambodian and Thai garment factories. 'Every time companies squeeze to get lower production costs, faster production, it's nobody but the working women who suffer and their families back at home,' she said. Exploitation is not limited to developing countries. Two-thirds of flower workers in the Netherlands are hired on temporary contracts. In the US, there is no legal protection for migrant workers. An Asda spokesman said last night: 'Ethical trading is something which we take very seriously. Although we have not yet seen Oxfam's report, we will take on board any points it raises.'
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