NEW YORK,NY- Workers in countries like India and Bangladesh employed in supplier factories for global retail giants Walmart, Gap and H&M face “intensive labor exploitation and abuse” including non-payment of wages, sexual harassment and unsafe work environments, according to advocacy groups. The Asia Floor Wage Alliance, which released a series of reports by trade unions and advocacy groups on the working conditions across...
the companies’ supplier factories for Walmart, H&M and Gap in India, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Cambodia, includes over 70 organizations representing garment industry trade unions, NGOs, consumer groups and research institutes. The report, “Precarious Work in the Walmart Global Value Chain,” said that across the 24 Walmart producing factories surveyed in India, workers reported violations of international labor standards including a “range of wage practices, including payment of wages below their skill level, denial of legally stipulated over time rates, illegal deductions, late payments and non-payment of wages.” Some workers in India were also made to work on Sundays and national holidays “in sweltering heat, without adequate supply of clean drinking water or any breaks.” Information for the report was collected through interviews and focus group discussions with 344 workers engaged in Walmart supply chains in Bangladesh, Cambodia and India, and a case study, spanning eight months, of working conditions in an Indonesia, Walmart supplier employing 3800 Indonesian contract workers.
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