Union freedoms and collective bargaining crucial for labour rights

All employees – regardless of gender, age, country of origin, legal status, employment status and location – have a right to decent and safe working conditions. This includes access to their basic right to freedom of association and collective bargaining and the ability to earn a living wage, which enables them to live in a dignified fashion. Collective organisation in trade unions enables employees to speak up with a shared voice vis-à-vis employers and to demand that their rights be respected or working conditions be improved. In numerous countries, working and trade union fights have led to legislation providing for humane working conditions. The relevant balance of power between the workers’ movement and employers also dictates the severity with which attacks on wage levels, working time arrangements or job security negatively impact employees. This right to freedom of association and collective bargaining is supported by the ILO core labour standards and OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises.

Oppression of trade unions

Nevertheless, it is often those empoloyees who jointly and autonomously advocated for better working conditions who come under most pressure from their employers. Making members of trade unions redundant or closing factories with effective trade unions are commonly used methods to suppress trade union activities, or even to make them impossible (‘union busting’).

 Employees who engage in trade unions were among the first to be let go during the Covid-19 crisis.

Trade unions are still often considered as irrelevant or disruptive by the globally active fashion industry. Instead of communicating with trade unions, many of these companies prefer to undertake commercial social audits to assess working conditions in their supply chains. Unfortunately, numerous accidents in factories – such as the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory or the Ali Enterprises factory fire – show that social audits provide no guarantees that health and safety measures are complied with in the workplace. Countries which are hostile towards trade unions are often among the favoured production locations of fashion companies.

In contrast, companies should be actively advocating for compliance with ILO core labour standards on freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining. A first step in this direction would be to take trade unions and employee representations seriously as partners and to actively promote dialogue within the industry – within companies and in the supply chain. Respecting trade union rights and strong trade unions should count as an important pre-requisite when companies select business and production partners, as well as commercial centres.

The Covid-19 crisis as a pretext for harsher repression of trade unions

Trade unions are particularly important during the Covid-19 pandemic. They are needed to implement health and safety measures and prevent fatal implications of competition over the work that remains available. Yet some employers and governments are taking advantage of the pandemic to do the opposite – to curtail labour rights.

Attempts to hollow out labour laws are a sign of the fierce battle over working rights and conditions and the large-scale repression of trade unions in various producer countries are a reflection of this: in Myanmar, trade unions report that their members are the first to be let go when factories start to reduce staff numbers. There has been real competition between states in India over restrictions to workers’ rights. For instance, the government of Madhya Pradeshs (in central India) raised factory shifts from eight to 12 hours per day and at the same time announced a 50% reduction in inspections in companies. In Uttar Pradesh (in northern India) practically all labour protection laws have been suspended and in Rajasthan (in north-western India) working hours were increased, protection against dismissal was reduced and the number of members trade unions are required to have in order to register has bene doubled.