- Marjorie van Elven
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Garment factory workers in Vietnam are not able to earn a living wage
without working excessive overtime, according to a report published this
week by the Fair Labor Association (FLA), based on data collected over
three years from 13,000 workers working across 38 factories.
Although the average garment factory worker in Vietnam earns more than
double the country’s minimum wage and well above the International Poverty
Line established by the World Bank, that’s still not enough to cover
basic necessities, which forces most of them to work over 50 hours of
overtime a month.
“Individuals shouldn’t have to work excessive overtime week after week
to compensate for low wages so they can put food on the table”, said FLA’s
President and CEO Sharon Waxman in a statement, calling for international
apparel companies, the government of Vietnam and civil society to push for
an increase in minimum wage to a level that would allow workers to not
depend on overtime.
A proposed bill aims to increase Vietnam’s minimum wage by 5.3 percent but,
even with the raise, the Vietnamese would still earn less than half of
what’s needed to satisfy their basic human needs, FLA says.
Vietnam is the world’s third largest garment exporter, behind China and
Bangladesh. The apparel industry accounts for 16 percent of the Vietnam’s
exports, employing some 2.5 million workers in a country of 90 million
inhabitants.
Buyers contribute to the problem by pressuring suppliers for lower
costs
Although fashion companies do not have the power to change Vietnam’s
minimum wage, FLA says they do contribute to the problem by using “harsh
negotiation tactics” to obtain the lowest possible prices from their
Vietnamese suppliers — a common complaint from garment manufacturers
worldwide as per a recent report by NGO Better Buying. Over 50
percent of the 319 suppliers interviewed by Better Buying say they have
been affected by high-pressure negotiation strategies such as not paying
for samples, not paying in time or not paying the full price as indicated
in a purchase order. Over 20 percent of respondents said that fewer than 80
percent of the orders they received were priced to cover the cost of
social, environmental, quality, and other compliance requirements.
Picture: Pexels
