Section 5: An Unfolding Humanitarian Crisis
1. A Push Below The Poverty Line
The business practices by brands precipitated extensive wage theft during the Covid-19 crisis in 2020, pushing workers into severe poverty. Despite both male and female workers having an average 5 years of work experience, all workers sampled in this research stated that they did not have enough savings to tide over even a one-month layoff period without 1) reducing consumption, especially cost of children’s education 2) incurring debt, or 3) selling assets. Ten cases of increase in child labour in families of terminated garment workers were also noticed.
• As the wages of garment workers in Pakistan dipped by 60-70% in April, the debt taken by workers increased by around 113% for the same period (Figure 4.12). Figure 7.10: wages, consumption andand debt, Figure 4.12:Trend Trendinin wages, consumption debt, 2020 Debt
Wage
Consumption
200
USD
150
“
“I tried to commit suicide soon after I was laid off in May, as I was four months pregnant and had no money to feed myself or my two other children. The company did not provide any financial support for laidoff workers, even if they were pregnant or had young children to feed at home. My landlord saved my life and helped me secure 30,000 PKR (193 USD) as loan from an NGO, to take care of my family’s basic needs and to pay for my medical expenses. I have removed my children from school, as I could not pay for their books or their school fees. In October, I had to take on more debt to meet my pregnancy related expenses. As repaying these debt became difficult, I asked my 15-year-old son to find work in a neighbourhood shop. In January, 2021, I was forced to return to the factory when it reopened as I did not want my family to starve to death. I leave my two-month-old baby with my 12-yearold daughter and come to work. I work for more than 10 hours a day, without break and the factory gates are locked to make sure we don’t leave before the production targets are met. Also, since January, the management has been constantly making us do unpaid overtime and is threatening us with termination, if we refuse to do it. I keep feeling suicidal.” - Sadia, 32-year-old-garment worker at a
100
Levi’s supplier factory in Faisalabad 50
0
yuar Jan uary r b Fe
ch Mar
il
Apr
May
ber
cto
e-O
Jun
ber
cem
e er-D emb Nov
”
Source: Primary data, n = 605
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