Low, low wages – the dirty secret of “Made in Europe”

I

n its most recent report “Stitched Up – Poverty wages for garment workers in Eastern Europe and Turkey", the Clean Clothes Campaign busted yet another fashion myth, namely that “Made in Europe” means fair wages and that paying more for clothes or sourcing from Europe

automatically guarantees decent working conditions.

Nothing could be further from the truth. After extensive research that included interviews with over 300 garment workers in 10 countries across post-socialist Eastern Europe (Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croati

a, Georgia, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Slovakia, Ukraine) and Turkey, the report found that “nearly all those producing clothes for major European retailers such as Hugo Boss, Adidas, Zara, H&M or Benetton are paid below the poverty line, and many have to rely on subsistence agriculture or a second job just to survive”. About half of all garments imported into the 27 member states of the EU are produced within geographical Europe and the region surveyed in the report is a relevant production hub for the EU.

Minimum wage does not equal living wage

Particularly shocking is that legal minimum wages cover only a fraction of a basic living wage - from 14 percent in Bulgaria, Ukraine and Macedonia to 36 percent in Croatia. A situation on par or even worse than in countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan and others that the European fashion industry likes to point fingers at quite frequently.

"This research shows that on our own doorstep, European garment workers are working long hours for wages that cannot sustain even their most basic of needs. Complex and opaque supply chains are not an excuse for denying people their basic right to a living wage. While brands such as Zara and H&M enjoy rising profits even during the crisis, working conditions in the production countries of the researched region have deteriorated particularly since 2008/9”, said Christa Luginbühl, one of the writers of the report.

What makes the situation worse is that workers have difficulty forming unions or fighting even for their most basic rights with existing ones: “Unions do not have the opportunity to bargain for higher wages since they have to constantly fight illegal practices such as long-term unpaid overtime and unpaid social contributions or long-term unpaid wages”, stated a Croatian unionist according to the report.

But instead of pointing more fingers, one should understand that rather than blaming a particular country or region for the practices employed, the whole industry needs to do some serious soul searching to find out why the fashion business is one that seems to attract unfair and illegal practices in the first place.

“We have come to expect that garment workers in Asia are being exploited with low wages and poor working conditions but what this report shows is that there are no good guys,” said Bettina Musiolek, another writer of the study.

Looks like another agreement along the lines of the Bangladesh Accord, with a focus on fair and living wages, is in order for clothes “Made in (Eastern) Europe”. The Clean Clothes Campaign is calling on brands and retailers to show their commitment to fair wages along the whole supply chain, demanding a basic net wage of at least 60 percent of the national average wage. In addition, consumers can check the performance of more than 100 brands regarding their efforts to pay a living wage via a mobile app launched by CCC earlier in the week.

Photos: Stitched Up