She has visited the factories that make your t-shirt: “You could question whether it borders on forced labour”
Julie Bundgaard recently defended her PhD on garment production in Bangladesh at the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Southern Denmark. She calls for political action and a debate on the conditions in the factories that produce our clothes. And she has some simple advice for what you, as a consumer, can do.
In Bangladesh, the minimum wage is less than half the estimated living wage, which is the amount needed to cover basic needs. So, is it really a genuine choice when many garment workers opt to take on as much overtime as possible at sewing machines to try to support their families?
Julie Bundgaard would like to see a public discussion on this.
She recently defended her PhD on garment production in Bangladesh at SDU Global Sustainable Production in collaboration with Bangladesh University of Health Sciences. Her research examines what Bangladeshi garment workers themselves think about their living conditions.
“If you are to have a choice, it must be between options where the consequences are not fatal if you choose one over the other. I believe one could argue that the consequences of not working overtime are indeed fatal if your legally allowed wage is less than half of what you need just to cover your basic necessities,” she says.
“So, I believe you could question whether it borders on forced labour.”
No focus on ergonomics
Bangladesh is the world’s second-largest producer of clothing, and many of the largest brands have their clothes produced there, including the H&M Group, Inditex, which owns Zara, and Denmark’s Bestseller.
In total, Julie Bundgaard and her colleagues visited nine garment factories in Bangladesh and interviewed more than 50 garment workers.
The aim was to find out whether the monitoring schemes, which are meant to ensure that conditions in the factories comply with the brands’ codes of conduct, actually reflect the workers’ needs. And they do not always.
“For example, there is no focus at all on ergonomics and physical health, even though the majority of garment workers report chronic or frequent bodily pain as a result of their work,” says Julie Bundgaard.
“If you have a large factory, it is undoubtedly a significant investment to ergonomically redesign thousands of workstations and change workflows to account for the health risks of repetitive work. Here, brands need to set higher demands and work with their suppliers to improve working conditions.”
Dreams are a luxury
Some of the interviews with the garment workers were based on photos they had taken with their phones. This is known as a photovoice study, and the purpose is to allow the interviewees’ own perspectives on the topic to guide the interviews.
Several things the garment workers said made an impression on Julie Bundgaard.
“For instance, we asked about their dreams for the future, but it seemed as though the question made no sense to many of them. Talking about aspirations or personal development just didn’t resonate because such matters are much further up the needs pyramid,” she explains.
Another surprising finding was that previous assumptions about why garment workers sometimes embellish their answers to inspectors were not entirely accurate.
“It was previously assumed that garment workers ‘window-dress,’ meaning they do not report problems because they fear being fired. But in our study, it turned out that it is more about the fact that if a factory gets a good inspection rating, it attracts good buyers, which ultimately benefits the garment workers,” says Julie Bundgaard.
“They are not just victims but also active agents who take steps to improve their situation.”
Clothes need to be more expensive
For Julie Bundgaard, the overarching problem in the garment industry is the low wages. And this is not unique to Bangladesh, she says. In other garment-producing Asian countries, such as China, India, and Vietnam, garment workers’ wages are also significantly below the living wage.
“One must remember that my results come from formal factories that follow the rules and agreed to participate in a research project. So, we can assume that these are some of the most ambitious factories and represent a minimum standard. I think it’s safe to assume that conditions are much worse across the broader spectrum,” says Julie Bundgaard.
She hopes that brands will start addressing the wage issue in their codes of conduct and that the EU will set requirements for how large the gap between the minimum wage and the living wage can be.
“That is the only way to address the real problem. This may mean that the cost of producing and buying clothes will increase, and that is only a good thing. Hopefully, this will reduce our consumption, which would also positively impact the CO₂ footprint caused by overproduction of clothing—particularly given the enormous mountains of textile waste our overconsumption generates around the world.”
What can I do as a consumer?
Although Julie Bundgaard believes it is primarily the responsibility of companies and politicians to ensure decent conditions at the world’s garment factories, there are still things private consumers can do.
In general, you should buy less clothing to counteract the overproduction that enables the poor conditions in garment factories in Asia. You can do this by asking yourself four questions each time you consider buying a new item of clothing: