Faster, Longer, Cheaper

Phan, 22-year-old migrant worker, sews sportswear for Puma at garment factory S in Thailand. This is her account of life at the factory.

'Every day we work from 8 am until noon, then break for lunch. After lunch we work again from 1 pm until 5 pm. We have to do overtime every day, starting from 5.30 pm. We work until 2 am or 3 am during the peak season. We always have to work a double shift. Although we are very exhausted, we have no choice. We cannot refuse overtime work, because our standard wages are so low. Sometimes we want to rest, but our employer forces us to work.

'I earn around US$ 50 per month, but I pay US$ 3 for electricity, water, and dormitory. I also pay US$ 5 for rice. The employer also asks us to pay US$ 7 per month for the workers' registration fee. So, I only have US$ 35 left for all my other living expenses. In some months during the low season when I earn less, I only have 30 or 40 cents left that month.

'I would like to demand the improvement of working conditions. However, we do not feel we can demand higher wages, welfare, and legal status.'

Phan's experience resonates with that of thousands of workers in the global sportswear industry. In interviews with workers in athletic apparel and footwear factories across seven countries, accounts of excessively long working hours, forced overtime, lack of job and wage security, poverty wages, denial of the right to unionise, poor health, exhaustion, mental stress, and dysfunctional family life were repeated over and over again. The reality of life in a sportswear factory, particularly in the workplace further down in the supply chain, is a far cry from the guaranteed workers' rights that are stipulated by law, or indeed the ethical commitments on labour standards proclaimed by many of the big global sports brands.

Too long and too hard

Long working hours and forced overtime are of most serious concern to all the women workers to whom we spoke. Factory managers typically push employees to work between 10 and 12 hours, sometimes extending to between 16 and 18 hours without a proper break. When order deadlines loom, working hours lengthen. A seven-day working week is becoming the norm during the peak season, particularly in China, despite limits being placed by the law. In two Chinese factories producing for Umbro, workers said that they were made to work a seven-day week frequently during the peak season. In one factory they worked a total of 120 hours of overtime during the month of October 2003 – three times in excess of Chinese labour legislation. 'We have endless overtime in the peak season and we sit working non-stop for 13 to 14 hours a day. We sewing workers work like this every day – we sew and sew without stopping until our arms feel sore and stiff,' said one of the workers. A 21-year-old woman working in sports garment factory H in Indonesia reported having to work more than 12 consecutive hours of overtime to meet an export deadline: 'In June and July 2003, the sewing department I am part of worked from 7 am until 4 am the next day because of a large Reebok order. We were allowed to go home for about seven hours, but had to be back at the factory at 11 am to work until 10 pm.' Krishanti, a 28-year-old worker in Bangkok garment Factory T producing for Fila, Nike, and Puma, reports: 'Sometimes we had to work on overtime in a night shift. It upsets the normal body functioning ... I work like a machine, not a human being.'

Overtime is usually compulsory; and workers are informed only at the last minute that they are expected to perform the extra hours. In four Turkish factories producing for Lotto, Fila, Puma, and Kappa, workers all reported being forced to work overtime. In many instances, workers report being threatened with dismissal and subjected to penalties as well as verbal abuse if they cannot work the additional hours. Soy, a garment worker at a Cambodian sportswear factory, told researchers: 'They force us to work overtime. If we refuse three times, the managers threaten us with dismissal. If we refuse to work on Sundays or public holidays, they also threaten us.' In Bulgarian factory U supplying Puma, refusal to do overtime is often used as a pretext for dismissing the worker. Fines are imposed on those who do not work the overtime hours as instructed. In a Chinese factory Q, producing for Umbro, workers were fined RMB 30 (US$ 3.60) for refusal to work overtime. In extreme cases, workers in three factories in China – two producing for Umbro and one for Mizuno and Kappa – reported being prevented from resigning during peak production periods. The management does this by retaining their wages (ranging from half a month to two months' worth). Often, management do not pay workers the overtime premium rate as stipulated by law.

For those with families, working days that often start in the early hours of the morning and extend late into the night leave little time for child-care or family life. Laila, who works in Indonesian factory D, producing goods for Fila, Puma, Lotto, Nike, Adidas, and ASICS, laments: 'There is no time for housework. For our friends who have children, we hear from them that they feel very upset in their hearts, that they never get time to spend with their children and to watch them grow. During the spare time we do have, we feel constantly exhausted.' A fellow Indonesian worker from Factory I, producing goods bearing the logos of Umbro and Puma and the Olympics emblem, adds: 'When there are stretches of overtime work, many workers who have children never get to see them. When they come home from work, their children are already sleeping. And all of us have to come to work so early in the morning that the children are usually asleep in the morning too. Family life is cut short'. As a worker in Bulgarian factory U sadly concludes: 'It is chaos at home.'

Poverty wages

The wages of the many workers who sew, assemble, and pack sportswear for export are not enough to guarantee a decent existence for them and their families. Workers in Indonesian factory G, producing for Reebok, told researchers, 'We have many living costs here. We have rent to pay for the dorms; we have food and transport costs. We need at least Rp 10,000 (US$ 1.19) per day for food and transportation. The company gives us only Rp 2,000 (US$ 0.23) per day for transportation. If workers have children, the daily cost of living is at least Rp 25,000 (US$ 2.97). A wage which would allow us to live and make some savings every month would be at least 1 million rupiah (US$ 119).' At the time of our research, the standard monthly take-home wage at this factory was only Rp 816,000 (US$ 98.6), 82 per cent of the amount needed.

Overtime work presents a dilemma. Workers universally hate it for the toll that it takes upon their health, their personal lives, and their family lives. Yet the extra payment (when it is made) brought in by overtime work can make the difference between starvation and subsistence wages. As one worker...