Indian Factory Workers Supplying Major Brands Allege Routine Exploitation

[appalachiablue]

- Charities have called on major brands to do more to protect those in the supply chain feeding their stores.

'Indian factory workers supplying major brands allege routine exploitation,' BBC News, Nov. 16, 2020.

Indian workers in factories supplying the supermarket chains Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury's, and the fashion brand Ralph Lauren, told the BBC they are being subjected to exploitative conditions.

Women working at a Ralph Lauren supplier said they had been forced to stay overnight to complete orders, sometimes requiring them to sleep on the factory floor. "We're made to work continuously, often through the night, sleeping at 3am then waking up by 5am for another full day," one woman said in an interview. "Our bosses don't care. They're only bothered about production," she said.

The BBC has withheld the names of those who agreed to be interviewed, as well as the names of the factories, to protect the workers' safety. Workers at the supermarket supplier said they had been made to endure conditions which would be unacceptable for staff employed by the same brands in the UK.

"We don't get toilet breaks, we don't get time to drink water on shift. We barely get time to eat lunch," one woman said.

She said a manager would sometimes stand behind staff in the canteen and blow a whistle to send them back to work. Another employee said staff were forced to work overtime and prevented from going home until extra work was finished. "They've increased our workload. We're forced to stay late to finish it - or they yell at us and threaten to fire us. We're scared as we don't want to lose our jobs."

The four brands supplied by the factories we investigated all said they were concerned about the allegations put to them by the BBC and would investigate...https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-54960346



- This young woman feeds her family on a salary of £61 per month. She told the BBC it was a struggle.

[whathehell]

1. "We don't get toilet breaks, We don't get time to drink water"

[marble falls]

3. Its a sound principle: if you don't drink, you don't need a pee break ...

... consumers in the west could put a stop to this very quickly.

[whathehell]

4. Forbidding either is 'soundly' fascistic.

[marble falls]

5. It demeans and harms physically and psychologically. It is a human rights violation.

[whathehell]

6. Exactly. .n/t

[CatLady78]

2. K&R.nt