RISING TEMPERATURES IN GARMENT FACTORIES: Rights group calls for urgent action

A global rights group has called on fashion brands, suppliers, and governments to act now to tackle the risks associated with rising temperatures in garment factories around the world.

In its new report titled "Heat and Garment Workers' Rights - Fashioning a Just Transition", Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) says as global temperatures rise from climate change, so do the risks of illness, harassment, and wage theft faced by 72 million fashion workers in factories - many of them women, migrants, and home workers.

The garment industry is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of heat as production is often concentrated in regions already exposed to increased temperatures, according to the report published on October 15.

Countries heavily reliant on garment exports and highly exposed to heat are especially at risk, it notes, adding that six of the "Critical 9" countries for heat stress - India, China, Indonesia, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Brazil - are major garment producers.

The issues are not limited to these countries. Garment workers across supply chains - in countries as far apart as Cambodia, the Philippines, Uganda, and Serbia - are also already feeling the strain of rising temperatures at work or at home.

According to the report, fashion companies are generating significant greenhouse gases and contributing to serious environmental degradation that are driving higher temperatures.

At the same time, they are simultaneously making vast profits from the exploited labour of workers, who are among the populations suffering first and the most from the climate crisis effects.

The report also points out that as the climate and ecological crisis intensifies, driven in no small part by the fashion industry, workplace heat is no longer an isolated hazard but a systemic threat.

"It is deepening existing labour rights violations and creating new ones for the very workers who have contributed least to the crisis. Heat in the workplace must be recognised as a fundamental and urgent labour and human rights issue across the sector."

CCC points out that as temperatures rise, the onus does not just fall on fashion brands and suppliers.

Governments also need to do their part by introducing standards on heat in the workplace and providing social security for the health and income impacts that high temperatures can have on workers, it says.

"There is no excuse for governments, suppliers, and brands to delay action or implementation. By failing to act, they continue to expose garment workers to dangerous temperatures, financial insecurity, and uncertain futures," it notes.

In a statement, Giuseppe Cioffo of the CCC international office says, "Governments must take workplace heat seriously and act now to protect workers."

Action includes binding standards to monitor heat in workplaces, protect workers from the threat of heat, and reduce harm when temperatures make workers ill, Cioffo says, adding they also need to foresee and address the impact that this will have on employment in the future.

CCC in the report has suggested measures to protect workers' health and safety from heat in the workplace in a way that is worker-driven, inclusive, and addresses local contexts.

It says governments, suppliers, and brands must act as a matter of urgency to reduce their contribution to climate and ecological change.

"They must stop the repression of fashion workers' rights and ensure their full freedom to organise, negotiate, and co-create climate adaptation strategies," it says.

They must end exploitative business practices, uphold the right to decent work in climate-vulnerable regions, and invest in social protection systems for all workers, regardless of contract type or migration status, it further says.

"Without action, garment workers are left exposed to the full force of climate breakdown, threatening their safety, livelihoods, and future."

Munni_fe@yahoo.com