Get the latest
Subscribe to our email newsletters and stay up to speed on ethical trade.
An ETI members' meeting to discuss proposals for an Asia-wide 'floor wage' for garment workers has increased momentum for collective action to raise workers' wages in global supply chains.
The global downturn is hitting the poorest workers in the world the hardest, and after recent hikes in commodity prices, garment workers in South Asian countries like Bangladesh are spending up to 70% of their monthly income on rice alone.
The Asia Floor Wage Alliance is calling for Asian garment workers and their supporters to unite together and adopt a regional bargaining strategy so that garment workers will be able to campaign for improved pay and conditions without the fear of causing job losses.
The aim is to stall the 'race to the bottom' in wage competition among Asian countries, whereby many workers - and indeed governments - fear that increasing wages in their own countries will prompt companies to take their orders to other, cheaper sourcing destinations.
The Alliance has also developed a concrete calculation for a minimum living wage that it believes companies sourcing in the region should implement.
ETI invited the Amsterdam-based Clean Clothes Campaign, a member of the Alliance, to set out their proposals at a members' meeting in November.
ETI members at the meeting expressed support for collective action on wages, and for a clear methodology for calculating a living wage, although many expressed concern about how the proposals could be made to work.
Said ETI Director Dan Rees, "There's clearly a huge appetite among all our members - companies, trade unions and NGOs alike - to engage in collective action on wages, despite concerns about some elements of the Asia Floor Wage proposal.
"We're committed to engaging with the Asia Floor Wage alliance and other initiatives to develop practical solutions to driving up wages."
ETI's AGM on 21 January will feature a Wages Action Forum, which will include discussion on how to take forward elements of the Asia Floor Wage proposal as well as planning for a membership-wide programme of activities aimed at raising wages.