{"id":2394,"date":"2020-10-20T12:25:48","date_gmt":"2020-10-20T11:25:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/?p=2394"},"modified":"2020-10-20T12:25:51","modified_gmt":"2020-10-20T11:25:51","slug":"covid-19-lockdown-and-the-needs-of-garment-workers-in-bangalore-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/covid-19-lockdown-and-the-needs-of-garment-workers-in-bangalore-india\/","title":{"rendered":"COVID-19 lockdown and the needs of garment workers in Bangalore, India"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-1024x576.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-170x96.jpg 170w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-250x141.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-550x309.jpg 550w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-70x40.jpg 70w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-270x152.jpg 270w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-370x208.jpg 370w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-570x320.jpg 570w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-670x376.jpg 670w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-770x433.jpg 770w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-870x489.jpg 870w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker-970x545.jpg 970w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">In our latest post, Professor Jean Jenkins explains the work she has been undertaken together with colleagues as part of the <a href=\"https:\/\/esrc.ukri.org\/\">Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)<\/a>-funded Operationalising Labour Rights project.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since October 2018, researchers from the <a href=\"https:\/\/wiserd.ac.uk\/\">Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research,\nData and Methods (WISERD)<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\">Cardiff Business School<\/a>\nhave been working in partnership with NGO, <a href=\"http:\/\/cividep.org\/\">Cividep-India<\/a>.\nWe\u2019ve been analysing data on whether and how garment workers in Bangalore are\nable to gain access to remedy (that is, the steps that are taken to prevent,\ninvestigate, punish and redress business-related human rights abuses) at a\nworkplace level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our project is called <a href=\"https:\/\/gtr.ukri.org\/projects?ref=ES%2FS000542%2F1\">Operationalising\nLabour Rights (OLR)<\/a> (OLR). We presented some of our preliminary findings to\nthe <a href=\"https:\/\/www.textilbuendnis.com\/en\/arbeitstreffen-2020\/\">German\nSustainable Textile Partnership<\/a> in April 2020 and we\u2019ve contributed to the\nthird phase of the <a href=\"https:\/\/undocs.org\/A\/HRC\/44\/32\">United Nations Office\nof the High Commissioner Human Rights Access to Remedy Project (ARP III)<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So far, we\u2019ve found the following violations of employment\nand human rights are common in garment factories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>explicit and open employer hostility towards\nfreedom of association, <\/li><li>routine use of humiliation, isolation, verbal\nand physical violence as methods of managerial control,<\/li><li>deliberate disruption of continuity of service\nas a means of limiting workers\u2019 statutory entitlements and the potential for\nunionisation, <\/li><li>manipulation of paperwork to deny workers their\nrights,<\/li><li>factory closure as a means of denying workers\ntheir entitlements, including wage theft.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On 24 March 2020, our study was temporarily brought to an\nabrupt halt, as lockdown in India was announced with just four hours\u2019 notice. <a href=\"https:\/\/ethicalcorp.com\/millions-garment-workers-face-destitution-fashion-brands-cancel-orders\">Garment\nworkers found themselves turned out of work as factories closed their doors,\ninternational brands cancelled future orders and some even reneged on contracts\nfor work already completed<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cThe terrible hardship that ensued meant that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-india-52086274\">hundreds of thousands of workers began to walk home to their villages<\/a> while those who remained in Bangalore were without the income they needed to pay their rent or buy food.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the context of crisis, the OLR project team in India and\nCardiff worked together to adapt OLR research tools (phones and tablets) to\nallow the <a href=\"https:\/\/glu.org.in\/\">Garment Labour Union<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/munnadewordpress.wordpress.com\/\">Munnade Social Organisation<\/a>\nto connect with workers in need. Through the months of April and May 2020 we\nrecorded 412 workers in urgent need of food and medical supplies. Almost 90% of\nthese people were garment workers, with the remainder being either construction\nor domestic workers. Most (83%) were migrants from other areas who came to\nBangalore in search of work, were living with their immediate families and had\nfamily members who were dependent on their income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The vast majority (just over 92%) of the workers lived in\nrented accommodation, and when asked whether they had sufficient money to\nafford to pay for rent and the basic essentials of life, no less than 96%\nanswered that they did not. While the government had ordered employers to pay workers\nuntil the end of March 2020, around 30% of the workers in our data had been\npaid only in part. Indeed, around 10% had been paid nothing for March and in\nsubsequent months, almost a third reported that they had not received any\npayment of wages since lockdown was originally imposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1009\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Graph-1024x1009.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2399\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Graph-1024x1009.png 1024w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Graph-343x338.png 343w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Graph-300x296.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Graph-768x757.png 768w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Graph-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Graph-40x40.png 40w, https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Graph.png 2001w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As the COVID-19 crisis rolls on, larger garment factories\nopened up again in Bangalore towards the end of May 2020 but the situation\nremains unpredictable and is subject to the imposition of local lockdowns. Elsewhere,\nt<a href=\"https:\/\/cleanclothes.org\/news\/2020\/garment-workers-on-poverty-pay-are-left-without-billions-of-their-wages-during-pandemic\">he\ngarment sector is in crisis worldwide and workers are, as ever, the casualties<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Our partners in India, Cividep, are continuing with their\nwork to support garment workers on the ground. As factories reopen in Bangalore\nunemployment remains high and many garment workers are unable to get their old\njobs back. For those who are back in the factories, workplace pressures have\nintensified and hardship continues. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p>\u201cWhether employers are responding to the competitive stresses associated with the pandemic or engaging in opportunistic exploitation of workers\u2019 increased vulnerability, there is a very real threat of a poorer standard of the \u2018new normal\u2019 for labour rights, trade union freedoms and conditions of work.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The OLR research team is very much aware that access to\nremedy may become even more difficult for garment workers to obtain in the days\nahead. In this context we persist in our determination to understand and\ndocument workplace realities in the hope that our research can contribute to\nmore positive change and decent work for all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cardiff.ac.uk\/people\/view\/610450-jenkins-jean\"><strong>Jean Jenkins<\/strong><\/a><strong>\nis Professor of Employment Relations at Cardiff Business School.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The <a href=\"https:\/\/gtr.ukri.org\/projects?ref=ES%2FS000542%2F1\">Operationalising Labour Rights<\/a> project is funded by the <a href=\"https:\/\/esrc.ukri.org\/research\/international-research\/global-challenges-research-fund-gcrf\/\">ESRC Global Research Challenges Fund<\/a> &#8211; grant reference: ES\/S000542\/1.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>This article was originally published on the <a href=\"https:\/\/wiserd.ac.uk\/news\/covid-19-lockdown-and-needs-garment-workers-bangalore-india\">WISERD blog<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In our latest post, Professor Jean Jenkins explains the work she has been undertaken together with colleagues as part of the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)-funded Operationalising Labour Rights [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":1580,"featured_media":2397,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1431],"tags":[35,28,100,27,7,1312,1184,4,1751,878,378,26,366,1752,1753,1316,13,365,1754,877],"class_list":["post-2394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-covid-19","tag-bangalore","tag-cardiff-business-school","tag-cardiff-university","tag-cividep","tag-civil-society","tag-coronavirus","tag-economic-and-social-research-council","tag-employment-relations","tag-garment-workers","tag-global-supply-chains","tag-human-rights","tag-india","tag-labour","tag-labour-rights","tag-operationalising-labour-rights","tag-pandemic","tag-public-value","tag-trade-unions","tag-united-nations","tag-wiserd"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paOfaS-CC","meta_box":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/620\/2020\/10\/Garment-worker.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1580"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2394"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2403,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2394\/revisions\/2403"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/business-school\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}