The Dignity Of My Labour

A recent BBC report on Indian workers in factories supplying supermarket chains Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Sainsbury's, and the fashion brand Ralph Lauren revealed that labourers in the factories are subjected to exploitative conditions.

Women working at a Ralph Lauren supplier said they had been forced to stay overnight to complete orders, sometimes requiring them to sleep on the factory floor. Workers at the supermarket supplier said "we don't get toilet breaks, we don't get time to drink water on shift. We barely get time to eat lunch. They've increased our workload. We're forced to stay late to finish it - or they yell at us and threaten to fire us. We're scared as we don't want to lose our jobs."

Tea plantation workers for some of the leading brands – like Tetley's, Twinings, Lipton, PG Tips, Yorkshire Tea etc – also share the similar stories of poor health, poor safety and bad working conditions. In these farms low wages contributed to workers' acute malnutrition and exposure to diseases. Working conditions of labour in electronics industry also portrays a dismal picture. Many leading electronics brands like Dell does not issue salary slips to its employees. Workers reported that they have been actively discouraged from joining a trade union at the time of recruitment. Workers are facing similar issues in mining, agriculture, construction, fisheries, domestic work and other industries. Laws to combat issues of sexual harassment at workplace are not implemented in letter and spirit. Low wages and weak labour laws have made India an attractive place for foreign and Indian brands looking to outsource work. Unions are rare and virtually absent in the private sector, making informal and contract workers especially vulnerable.

Several organisations across the country are active for the workers’ rights but these efforts are limited to securing their rights by dialogues/ protests with the industry, employer but hardly any movement in the country or sector worked with the middle class consumers as pressure points for securing worker’s rights and ensures employers to fulfil their obligations to workers.

With this background we are organising a first learning circle in the series “The Dignity of My Labour” on March 12 (Friday), 2021, from 06.30 PM to 07:30 PM (IST).

We are delighted to have Greg Asbed and Marley Monacello, Co-founders, Coalition of Immokalee Workers, SW Florida and architects of the Fair Food Program (FFP) to share with us how Fair Food Program in the food industry and the Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) model demonstrated the protection of worker’s rights and how these approaches can be adopted to Indian context.

Please join using following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83969097664?pwd=blR1VjdIcXBLbURUZ3JpQ1ZyT2gxUT09

Meeting ID: 839 6909 7664

Pass code: 882599