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Squeezing workers’ rights in global supply chains: purchasing practices in the Bangladesh garment export sector in comparative perspective
Review of International Political Economy
Abstract
Workers’ rights violations have been pervasive in many global supply chains. In the apparel sector, production workers often face precarious working conditions, including persistently low pay, excessive and often forced overtime, unsafe buildings, and repression of their right to form unions and bargain collectively. This article explores how purchasing practices of lead firms adversely affect working conditions and workers’ rights in supplier factories. It attributes these trends to a price squeeze and a sourcing squeeze in which lead firms pay increasing lower prices to suppliers while also imposing short lead times and high order volatility. To test this argument, trade data of apparel imports to the United States and the European Union are explored. The article then turns to original surveys of Bangladesh supplier factories and workers carried out in 2016 and 2017. The final section of this paper examines the impact of the squeeze on working conditions and workers’ rights using the Labour Rights Indicators.
... The novelty of this research paper lies in the lack of evidence of globalisation and neoliberalism as a theoretical framework available in previous international publications to discuss and investigate Bangladesh's RMG sector's minimum wages (Alamgir & Banerjee, 2019;Anner, 2020;Huq, 2022;Kabir et al., 2022;Saxena, 2022;Siddiqi, 2019). More broadly, scholars have yet to show collaboration between the theories of globalisation and neoliberalism and how these macroeconomic forces debilitated developing countries to be self-dependent with their substantial macroeconomic policies beyond the socio-economic obstacles of those nations like Bangladesh. ...
... Scholars saw this relationship as directly caused by the influence of globalisation and neoliberalism (see Siddiqi, 2017;Ullah, 2023a, b, c, d). On the other hand, an international scholar such as Anner (2020) argues that if workers do not collectively raise their voices against shoddy workplaces and low wages, it is unlikely to see any changes (see also Ullah, 2023c). Harvey (2005) also criticised Western, mainly the US-based giant conglomerate the Walton family. ...
... International scholars suggest that the Bangladesh government and RMG employers violate the ILO Convention on Collective Bargaining. Furthermore, illegal dismissal of workers from factory jobs, blacklisting, arrests, and illegal police charges are also common due to RMG workers' participation in trade unionism (Anner, 2020;Ashraf & Prentice, 2019;Ullah, 2023a, b, c). However, with all the facts facing trade unionism in Bangladesh, their political affiliation with the right political parties and capitalists still leads to debate about whether Bangladeshi trade unionists want to see fundamental changes in working conditions and minimum wage structures for RMG workers in Bangladesh. ...
Since the 1980s, Western and European multinational corporations, notably clothing and fashion brands, have shifted their production to developing nations, particularly in the ready-made garments (RMG)-producing countries like Bangladesh. This shift, driven by the dominant economic and political doctrines of globalisation and neoliberalism, has led to the deliberate targeting of developing nations to exploit their abundant labour forces and strengthen global capitalism. The RMG industry in Bangladesh, a prime example, pays its workers meagre wages. However, it is the global brands, through their outsourcing practices, that hold significant power and contribute to the exploitation of RMG workers in Bangladesh while reaping substantial profits. This article highlights these issues and urgently calls for essential policy recommendations to reform the minimum wage structure for RMG workers in Bangladesh.
... Bangladeshi garment factory workers have no effective platform to use to expedite their voices to secure their interests (Alamgir and Alakavuklar, 2020). Although labour unions are widely accepted as a platform to ensure workers' wellbeing through social dialogues between workers and supplier management (Ashraf and Prentice, 2019;Alamgir and Banerjee, 2019), numerous garment exporters in Bangladesh strategically circumvent the establishment of labour unions within their factories (Anner, 2020). Accordingly, it hinders garment workers' fundamental rights to raise their voices and limits their negotiating and bargaining power with the management to ensure their wellbeing Anner, 2020). ...
... Although labour unions are widely accepted as a platform to ensure workers' wellbeing through social dialogues between workers and supplier management (Ashraf and Prentice, 2019;Alamgir and Banerjee, 2019), numerous garment exporters in Bangladesh strategically circumvent the establishment of labour unions within their factories (Anner, 2020). Accordingly, it hinders garment workers' fundamental rights to raise their voices and limits their negotiating and bargaining power with the management to ensure their wellbeing Anner, 2020). In this scenario, it is crucial to bolster social dialogue opportunities to ensure that worker voices are heard in supplier factories. ...
... However, despite being crucial players in the global garment value chain, garment suppliers are not always receptive and supportive of avenues for worker voice-raising, such as labour unions. They do not want union-type initiatives as they suspect unions will increase workers' wages and other fringe benefits and instigate counter-productive work behaviour, such as unrest, theft, strike, etc. (Hoque and Shahinuzzaman, 2021;Anner, 2020). Against this backdrop, multinational lead buyers in the downstream part of the global garment value chain need to play an active role in ensuring worker voices through social dialogues. ...
Purpose
This study aims to explore how multinational lead buyers can play an active role in ensuring worker voices in garment supplier factories where workers have limited space to raise their voices, and how buyers’ involvement increases the possibilities of worker voices mitigating barriers to social dialogues and enhancing mutual interests of buyers and workers in garment factories.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a qualitative research approach and multiple embedded case study method, this study considered buyer−supplier dyads as the unit of analysis, i.e. two multinational lead buyers and their four corresponding suppliers in the garment industry of Bangladesh. Focus group discussion and key informant in-depth interviews were techniques applied to collect factory-level data, and within and cross-case analysis techniques were applied to develop an overall understanding.
Findings
The results of this study reveal that the opportunities for workers to voice their concerns through social dialogue in garment supplier factories are limited due to various obstacles. Similarly, the role of multinational lead buyers in addressing these issues is found to be less than ideal. This study also shows that buyers can take short-term and long-term initiatives to ensure social dialogues. Moreover, this study presents how social dialogues can meet the expectations of multinational buyers and their garment suppliers.
Research limitations/implications
While this study focuses exclusively on the garment industry, similar scenarios also exist across a multitude of other industries. Thus, future research could extend this study’s scope to various sectors, providing a more comprehensive understanding of the general state of worker voices in Bangladesh. This study stands to make significant contributions to literature in the fields of global value chains, human relations and international business. It will pose critical perspectives on how upstream value chain suppliers can fortify worker rights through social dialogue, and elucidate the means and motives for lead buyers to play a more active role in this endeavour.
Originality/value
This study is distinct in its approach, integrating buyer−supplier roles to pave the way for enhanced worker voice opportunities through social dialogue in garment supplier factories.
... Double squeeze: Suppliers often face a double squeeze on their profits and sourcing practices to meet the rising demands of buyers (Anner, 2020). This double profit and sourcing squeeze can result in suppliers putting pressure on the working conditions of their workers, undermining wages, working hours, the health and safety of the environment, and increasing the risk of mistreatment and abuse. ...
... New trade agreements and relations, such as the entry of China and Vietnam into the WTO, have significantly increased competition among supplying countries (Anner, 2020). On the other hand, the growing role of "impatient" finance capital, in permanent search of better investment returns for a given level of risk, is accentuating power asymmetries in the apparel supply chain. ...
... This results in a constant pressure to for lead firms to "grow share values or risk being replaced" (Anner, 2020:5). To remain competitive, lead firms constantly demand increasing margins from their global supply chains, resulting in a price and sourcing squeeze of their suppliers (Anner, 2020). ...
ISEAL, IDH, Rainforest Alliance, and Evidensia commissioned a systematic review to identify effective supply chain sustainability approaches for improving decent work outcomes in apparel production in low- and middle-income countries. The review aimed to understand key contextual, adoption, and implementation dynamics affecting these interventions. It identified and analysed relevant, credible literature to provide evidence on the impact of these approaches on various decent work outcomes for waged employees. The findings are presented in three reports, with this report highlighting key insights and lessons on the effects of supply chain sustainability on decent work outcomes in the apparel sector.
... Double squeeze: Suppliers often face a double squeeze on their profits and sourcing practices to meet the rising demands of buyers (Anner, 2020). This double profit and sourcing squeeze can result in suppliers putting pressure on the working conditions of their workers, undermining wages, working hours, the health and safety of the environment, and increasing the risk of mistreatment and abuse. ...
... New trade agreements and relations have significantly increased competition among supplying countries (Anner, 2020), such as the entry of China and Vietnam into the World Trade Organization (WTO). On the other hand, lead firms often face a double squeeze on their profits and sourcing practices to meet the rising demands of buyers in a highly competitive environment (Anner, 2020). ...
... New trade agreements and relations have significantly increased competition among supplying countries (Anner, 2020), such as the entry of China and Vietnam into the World Trade Organization (WTO). On the other hand, lead firms often face a double squeeze on their profits and sourcing practices to meet the rising demands of buyers in a highly competitive environment (Anner, 2020). This double profit and sourcing squeeze can result in suppliers putting pressure on the working conditions of their workers, undermining wages, working hours, the health and safety of the environment, and increasing the risk of mistreatment and abuse. ...
ISEAL, IDH, Rainforest Alliance, and Evidensia commissioned a systematic review to identify the most effective supply chain sustainability approaches for improving decent work outcomes in agricultural production in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The review examined relevant literature to understand the impacts of these approaches on waged employees, including those on smallholder farms and in large agribusinesses. The findings are presented in three reports, with this report highlighting key insights and lessons on the effects of supply chain sustainability on decent work outcomes in the agriculture sector.
... Double squeeze: Suppliers in the apparel sector often face a double squeeze on their profits and sourcing practices to meet the rising demands of buyers (Anner, 2020). This double profit and sourcing squeeze can result in suppliers putting pressure on the working conditions of their workers, undermining wages, working hours, the health and safety of the environment, and increasing the risk of mistreatment and abuse. ...
... This suggests that time and consistency in programme implementation eventually succeeds in shaping some practices that are conducive to better terms and conditions. 9. Suppliers in the apparel sector are often subject to a double price/profit and sourcing squeeze (Anner, 2020). In other words, they are subject to low prices due to stiff competition, while expected to deliver last-minute changing orders within tight timelines. ...
... In such highly competitive environments, employers are often subject to a double price/profit and sourcing squeeze (Anner, 2020), putting pressure on working conditions, undermining wages, working hours, the health and safety of the environment, and increasing the risk of mistreatment and abuse. When this double squeeze is combined with informal labour arrangements and lack of workers' protection in local labour markets, workers become increasingly vulnerable. ...
... Ideally, this would provide opportunities for economic and social upgrading (Bair & Gereffi, 2003;Rossi, 2013). Nevertheless, with numerous countries competing to get a 'foot in the door', in the long run this competition may well add up to a global 'race to the bottom' rather than a developmental opportunity (see Anner, 2019;Barrientos & Smith, 2007). ...
... We take our lead from this GPN perspective, with a focus on workers' agency and the argument that corporate social responsibility mechanisms (such as CoCs) could become strategic tools for labour organising despite their inherent weakness as a form of private regulation (LeBaron, 2020;Lund-Thomsen & Coe, 2015). However, to successfully intervene in labour rights violations, labour has to deal with the issue of their bargaining leverage in GPNs (Alamgir & Banerjee, 2019;Anner, 2015Anner, , 2019Coe & Jordhus-Lier, 2011Graz et al., 2020;Wichramasingha & Coe, 2021). The context for this is power imbalances between lead firms and suppliers in GPNs (Bair et al., 2020), as well as a power imbalance between workers and suppliers as their immediate employers (Alamgir & Banerjee, 2019;Anner, 2015). ...
... First, in an industry such as the garment industry, direct employers themselves often have very little bargaining leverage in relation to lead firms. Even though they are subjected to the lead firms' CoCs, due to cut-throat competition and low profit margins employers have little room to manoeuvre when facing worker demands (Anner, 2019). Second, in many cases workers can expect little protection from the state, because states in such contexts are often unwilling or unable to enforce minimum standards in the workplace. ...
Workers in the garment manufacturing industry are often subjected to violations of their rights and are exposed to low wages and difficult working conditions. In response to the exposure of these violations in the media, major fashion brands and retailers subject their suppliers to labour codes of conduct. Despite these codes of conduct being largely ineffective, this comparative case study of garment manufacturers operating from Lesotho and Eswatini illustrates that such codes provide workers and trade unions with access to bargaining leverage that they would otherwise not have. A framework with a synthesis of potential sources of workers’ power is developed and related to global production networks, collective mobilisation, the nature of the state, as well as national and transnational scales of organising. Based on historical case studies of the two countries, this paper illustrates how unions in the two countries followed different approaches to using this source of power in relation to other sources of power. These approaches were shaped by their contexts and strategic choices. Theoretically, it is argued that sources of workers’ power are analytically distinct, but are relational and operate best when seen as mutually reinforcing. The term ‘power resource nexus’ is used to frame this potential mutual reinforcement of sources of power.
... Previous research suggests that collaboration across countries or regions largely reflects technical resource combinations (Binz & Truffer, 2017;Duan et al., 2021;She et al., 2022;Whitfield et al., 2020). Different types of countries or regions provide different types of resources for transnational innovation (Samara et al., 2012;Whitfield et al., 2020) and have different degrees of substitutability and complementarity in transnational cooperation (e.g., Anner, 2019;Baglioni et al., 2019;Durand & Milberg, 2019;Mahutga, 2013). These characteristics can significantly affect the level of knowledge spillover for different countries or regions in transnational innovation (Duan et al., 2021;She et al., 2022) and ultimately affect innovation efficiency. ...
... Technical substitutability represents the redundancy and resemblance of technical resources or technical knowledge, while technical complementarity represents the ability of a component of the technical resource or knowledge to produce a critical combination with other components of technical resources or knowledge (Dibiaggio et al., 2014). The innovation literature emphasizes the importance of complementary and substitute relationships in transnational teams (Anner, 2019;Baglioni et al., 2019;Durand & Milberg, 2019;Mahutga, 2013;Whitfield et al., 2020). We believe that the degree of substitute or complementary knowledge and resources of the innovation team largely determines the efficiency with which the labor input is effectively utilized. ...
Transnational innovation is a crucial component of global innovation systems. In literature, researchers have abstracted transnational innovation as a “money in, innovations out” process, focusing on evaluating the balance between capital input and innovation output. After referring to the Cobb–Douglas production function, this study points out the importance of labor input. Based on the analysis of decades of global patent application data, we verify the innovation efficiency decline in transnational innovation compared with domestic innovation. However, even if inefficient to some extent, transnational innovation is still a necessary option in some cases, such as when critical knowledge or resources are lacking locally. In these cases, finding the inefficiency’s antecedent variables may be the key to mitigating or even reversing the inefficiency. We thus investigate the antecedents of transnational innovation and identify two key factors, namely, technological substitutability and complementarity in innovation teams. The empirical results indicate that technological substitutability reduces innovation efficiency through redundancy of resources, while technological complementary improves innovation efficiency by facilitating knowledge combination. Finally, we identify 20 leading countries or regions in global transnational innovation, exploring their patterns of cooperation. Our analyses of innovation efficiency and technical structure (substitutability and complementarity) within them further substantiate our empirical results.
... Dit is een van de meest gemondialiseerde productieketens in de huidige tijd. Waar in 1960 bijvoorbeeld nog 95% van de kleding in de VS werd geproduceerd, is dat tegenwoordig nog maar 3% (Anner, 2019). Het is bovendien een productieketen die geregeld in het nieuws komt vanwege misstanden als uitbuiting, onderbetaling, kinderarbeid, onderdrukking van vakbonden, ongezonde en onveilige arbeidsomstandigheden, afvalbergen, milieuverontreinigende productieprocessen en stikstofuitstoot Paradigmaverschuivingen in het denken over de aanpak van misstanden in mondiale productieketens door het bedrijfsleven ...
... In sectoren als de hout-en kledingindustrie presteren gecertificeerde bedrijven niet beter dan niet-gecertificeerde bedrijven (Bartley, 2018). Bovendien zijn in de periode tussen 2011 en 2016 waarin de kledingindustrie rond de 8 miljard dollar in gedragscodes heeft geïnvesteerd de werkomstandigheden alleen maar verslechterd: de prijzen zijn verlaagd, de betalingstermijnen zijn verlengd en de levertijden zijn verkort, terwijl het aandeel van de kleding dat is geproduceerd in de landen waar de meeste mensenrechtenschendingen plaatsvinden is toegenomen (Anner, 2019). ...
Mijn bijdrage aan het vriendenboek voor Romke's afscheid gaat over paradigmaverschuivingen in het denken over de rol van bedrijven bij het voorkomen van misstanden in mondiale productieketens (vooral de (ultra) fast fashion keten). Waar begin jaren 90 van de vorige eeuw het optimisme domineerde dat bedrijven het sturingsgat dat overheden lieten liggen konden dichten, zijn we nu in een situatie beland waarin de gedachte overheerst dat overheden weer meer verantwoordelijkheid naar zichzelf zou moeten toetrekken om het sturingsgat te dichten dat bedrijven sindsdien hebben laten bestaan.
... Dit is een van de meest gemondialiseerde productieketens in de huidige tijd. Waar in 1960 bijvoorbeeld nog 95% van de kleding in de VS werd geproduceerd, is dat tegenwoordig nog maar 3% (Anner, 2019). Het is bovendien een productieketen die geregeld in het nieuws komt vanwege misstanden als uitbuiting, onderbetaling, kinderarbeid, onderdrukking van vakbonden, ongezonde en onveilige arbeidsomstandigheden, afvalbergen, milieuverontreinigende productieprocessen en stikstofuitstoot Paradigmaverschuivingen in het denken over de aanpak van misstanden in mondiale productieketens door het bedrijfsleven ...
... In sectoren als de hout-en kledingindustrie presteren gecertificeerde bedrijven niet beter dan niet-gecertificeerde bedrijven (Bartley, 2018). Bovendien zijn in de periode tussen 2011 en 2016 waarin de kledingindustrie rond de 8 miljard dollar in gedragscodes heeft geïnvesteerd de werkomstandigheden alleen maar verslechterd: de prijzen zijn verlaagd, de betalingstermijnen zijn verlengd en de levertijden zijn verkort, terwijl het aandeel van de kleding dat is geproduceerd in de landen waar de meeste mensenrechtenschendingen plaatsvinden is toegenomen (Anner, 2019). ...
... There may be some truth to this claim; however, the lead firms cannot be fully exonerated. For years, academics and civil society actors, such as Better Buying, have demanded that lead firms review and revise their sourcing practices to align with their labor regulation goals (Anner, 2020;Dickson, 2019). ...
... Some environmental factors are beyond individual companies' control (e.g., the host country's rule of law), but lead firms play a critical role in others. Our study echoes others (Anner, 2020;Dickson, 2019) in advocating for the alignment of lead firm sourcing practices and labor-related demands. Doing so sends an unequivocal message to suppliers about how serious the firm is about its labor-related goals and removes unnecessary barriers for suppliers to enhance their regulatory compliance. ...
How does a multinational enterprise (MNE) monitor and regulate the working conditions of a multi-tiered global value chain? Literature based on internalization theory focuses on the role of an MNE as the sole regulator, assuming the passivity of suppliers within the chain. We challenge this approach as it is not feasible for a single firm to monitor and regulate hundreds of independent suppliers. We expand on this literature, particularly the cascading governance thesis, by considering suppliers as regulatory intermediaries and addressing the issue of regulatory quality. Through a case study of two Korean multinational first-tier suppliers in the apparel and electronics industries, we find that an MNE, as a lead firm, engages in a more prudent form of cascading governance than originally theorized, maintaining direct audits of sub-suppliers. First-tier suppliers exercised intermediary competence in facilitating the lead firm's cascading governance. However, faced with inconsistent lead firm demands and challenging host country environments, these suppliers had to compromise on regulatory quality and settle on "good-enough" compliance-a level of compliance that poses minimal risk to the firm while allowing them to prioritize production goals-over perfect compliance.
... Global restructuring has seen lead firms, often based in high-income countries, constituting important final product markets and exercising significant purchasing power to outsource production to an array of suppliers operating in multi-tiered chains in lower-cost locations situated in low-and middle-income countries (Barrientos, 2013a;Gereffi, 2018). Irresponsible sourcing practices (driven by competitive pressures) such as lower price demands, short lead times and high order volatility place pressure on suppliers to reduce their own costs resulting in issues including excessive overtime, supervisor abuse to induce worker productivity, and health and safety cost-cutting (Anner, 2019(Anner, , 2020Barrientos, 2013a;Locke, 2013;Prentice and Trueba, 2018). Crane (2013: 49) suggests that in value chains with high labour intensity, a lead firm squeeze on value distribution and high elasticity of demand (e.g. ...
... A Malaysian manufacturer highlighted the knock-on effect on labour, suggesting that the "NHS wants a ruthlessly low price" and manufacturers will pay workers if they themselves are paid (M1). Purchasers' downward pressure on prices has been identified as a driver of excessive overtime, depressed wages and increased physical harms and verbal abuse to drive productivity (Anner, 2019(Anner, , 2020Prentice and Trueba, 2018). These are longstanding labour issues in the Malaysian medical gloves sector (Bengtsen, 2019;Ellis-Petersen, 2018) and correlate with our data. ...
Drawing on research into medical gloves global value chains (GVCs), this article examines the interacting roles that states differently positioned in GVCs have played in preventing and eliminating forced labour. Our case study, based on a worker survey and semi-structured interviews across GVC actors, focuses on forced labour in the Malaysian medical gloves sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, linking production in Malaysia, end markets in the UK (primarily through procurement for the National Health Service), and migrant-sending countries, especially Nepal. We analyze the intermeshing effects of the different roles of states, operating at either the horizontal or vertical level of GVC governance, in terms of contributing to issues of forced labour. We identify three state roles in the Malaysia-UK medical gloves chain: producer state (Malaysia), migrant-sending state (Nepal) and regulator-buyer state (UK). We also identify some of the most persistent barriers to resolving forced labour in the value chain. Our research illustrates that Malaysia’s complex regulatory, political and institutional dynamics most directly influence forced labour in gloves production, but Nepal’s migration policies and the UK’s healthcare procurement practices also create forced labour risk in Malaysia. Advancing Gereffi and Lee’s (2016: 25) notion of “synergistc governance” and Jessop’s (2016) strategic-relational approach (SRA) to the state, we thus argue that the creation of sustained and positive regulatory synergies among states differently positioned in GVCs is necessary for the prevention and elimination of forced labour.
... The strategies of MNCs to obtain products at the cheapest cost create cost pressure on transnational suppliers, and this pressure usually leads to lower labour costs or wages (Anner, 2019;Shih et al., 2021). As a result of reducing labour costs, conditions such as long working hours, excessive overtime, low wages, unregistered employment, child labour, the denial of the right to unionize, and inadequate occupational health and safety measures are the main characteristics of the workplaces of suppliers (Barrientos, 2002;Nova & Wegemer, 2016;Seidman, 2007). ...
... As a result of these efforts, although FWF Turkey has improved wages in its member workplaces, it is understood that this improvement is very limited to the number of these workplaces and the labour force they employ. The data obtained, similar to the study results found in the literature (LeBaron et al., 2021;Anner, 2019), shows that the lowest-cost production strategy adopted by MNCs makes it impossible to implement the living wage principle in the MSCSR codes in the apparel industry. ...
Since the late 1960s, multinational companies have shifted labour-intensive production, such as textiles and apparel, from developed to developing countries, resulting in very low wages and deplorable working conditions in these regions. This instigated discussions on the implementation of labour standards at the global level. These discussions took place within international institutions such as the ILO, OECD, and the UN until the 1980s. After that, non-governmental organizations began to be concerned with the appalling conditions of workers in global factories by promoting self-developed corporate social responsibility codes. Despite the very rich literature that exists about the effectiveness of multi-stakeholder corporate social responsibility codes, the literature on this subject is quite limited in Turkey. This study aims to examine the extent to which the corporate social responsibility codes of multi-stakeholder initiatives operating in Turkey, in the supplier firms producing for global brands in the apparel industry, have improved the effectiveness of labour standards. Based on interviews with multi-stakeholder initiatives and document analysis on the subject, the study shows that these codes that suppliers to global brands in the Turkish apparel industry must comply with, are largely cosmetic images and are ineffective in improving labour standards.
... Bangladesh has continued to witness growth in its export figures, and factory owners have effectively competed with major apparel-producing nations like China, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, and Thailand by providing clothing products at a lower price than their competitors (Anner, 2020;Kabir et al., 2022, p. 546). ...
... In reaction to pricing pressures, garment producers make diverse adjustments, including modifications to fabric, trims, embellishments, labour costs, and local freight expenses to the port (Anner, 2020). On the factory floor, workers experience price squeeze through suppressed real wages and adverse effects on labour conditions (Anner, 2019;Kabir et al., 2022). ...
This article examines the lived experiences of precarity in Bangladesh's ready-made garments (RMG) industry, focusing on female migrant workers employed in Dhaka and surrounding industrial areas. Over the past three decades, the growth of the RMG sector has attracted economically disadvantaged rural women, distancing them from their traditional domestic and agricultural roles. This sector predominantly employs young women due to their perceived flexibility, low wages, and limited union involvement. Additionally, their status as "unskilled" workers in the lowest echelons of a gender-stratified labour market, along with the influence of socio-cultural power dynamics, constrains their capacity to negotiate their positions effectively. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic research conducted in Dhaka and Gazipur, this article unravels the intricate interplay between insecure labour conditions, the impact of the global supply chain, and gender dynamics. It underscores the pivotal significance of socio-cultural power dynamics in understanding the vulnerability experienced by female migrant labourers. We assert that a comprehensive understanding of precarious work requires recognising the inherent link between precarious employment and precarious life within the broader context of socio-cultural power dynamics, gender norms, and societal relations.
... Peter Dauvergne (2022) argues that far from greening production, the application of artificial intelligence is actually facilitating this processanalogous to how digitalisation via platform work has corroded working conditions. Global offshoring of production and other activities also increased the overall toll of poor OHS because poor countries were marked by weaker unions and regulation, most dramatically illustrated by the 2013 Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh where a building collapsed killing 1300 workers, most of whom were female clothing workers in factories supplying clothing to rich countries (Anner, 2020). As Jackson and Quinlan in Contract labour in mining and occupational health and safety: A critical review in this issue note, the economically driven outsourcing and subcontracting of tasks via global supply chains has undermined OHS and environmental health and regulatory oversight in critical minerals processing (Kalantzakos 2020;Le Billon and Spiegel, 2022). ...
This special Themed Collection of The Economic and Labour Relations Review examines the ‘Economics of Occupational Health and Safety’ (OHS). The economics of OHS looks at how economic structures and incentives, including labour markets and production processes, influence the health and wellbeing of workers and the communities where they live. It is a large and diverse subject that has been viewed from multiple different lenses. This thematic issue can only touch on some of these but will remind readers how economic incentives and industrial competitive pressures affect OHS. This editorial will take the form of an article which explores some of these intersections and places them in a wider context. To do this, the economics of OHS will not only be examined in terms of economic welfare and microeconomics at the industry and workplace level, but also from an historical perspective, as well as the intersection of these levels, thus providing a useful framework to shape research and discussion.
... The basic terms of reference for this incentive stated that it could only be used to pay the wages and benefits of workers and staff in export-oriented RMG industries. COVID-19 presented a double-edged sword for the RMG industries because, while 98.1% of customers were unconcerned about the illegal wage loss of manufacturing workers, 50% of buyers canceled orders that were either in the production process or had already been finished (Anner, 2020). ...
... The industries engaged in textile processing are not too aware of environmental issues. Bangladesh is also a textile exporter to the EU market and faces too many environmental problems due to its rapid growth although it has low-cost garment production facilities (Anner M, 2020;Mohan Kathuria, L, 2013). The textile companies of Bangladesh produce a remarkable number of wastes and throw them directly into the environment. ...
Objectives: This study investigates the impact of European Union (EU) environmental policies on Bangladesh's and Turkey's textile industries. It aims to identify the challenges both nations face in implementing these regulations and explore opportunities for sustainable development by comparing their approaches. Theoretical Framework: The research is grounded in environmental governance and industrial sustainability principles, emphasizing the interplay between regulatory frameworks and economic practices in developing countries. Method: A mixed-methods approach combines an extensive literature review with analyzing country-specific data from existing studies. This method provides a comprehensive understanding of the challenges and strategies employed by both nations. Results and Discussion: Findings reveal that compliance with EU regulations is challenging for Bangladesh and Turkey due to their reliance on textile exports. With its diversified economy, Turkey faces high financial requirements, while Bangladesh struggles with rapid population growth and unplanned industrialization. Common issues such as air and water pollution, along with inadequate waste management systems, are prevalent in both contexts. Differences emerge in regulatory frameworks and resource management, influencing their respective adaptation strategies. Research Implications: The study highlights the need for customized policy interventions and international collaboration to support compliance efforts in both countries. Enhanced environmental practices can foster the achievement of Sustainable development Goals (SDGs) while ensuring economic growth. Originality/Value: This research offers a comparative analysis of two major textile-exporting nations, providing fresh insights into balancing economic development with environmental responsibilities in the global textile sector.
... We can observeat times simultaneously and in the same countryboth the potential benefits of GVC participation and the adverse social and environmental impacts. Bangladesh is a case in point: empirical studies highlight that its accelerated economic development is associated with the strong integration into global apparel supply chains, while working conditions are often debated, see, e.g., Anner (2019) or Narula (2019). Social (e.g. ...
... The mass production processes inherent in fast fashion contribute substantially to waste, pollution, and carbon emissions (Niinimäki et al. 2020). Moreover, the reliance on cheap labor frequently results in poor working conditions and the exploitation of factory workers (Anner 2020). At the same time, the pervasive influence of social media (Wąsowicz-Zaborek 2018 has led to heightened consumer awareness of these environmental and social impacts of big business. ...
This study investigates the interplay between Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) engagement and pricing strategies in shaping consumer purchase intentions in the fast fashion industry. Using a scenario-based experimental design with 267 participants, this research explores how different levels of CSR and two distinct price points influence purchasing behavior. Additionally, the moderating effects of individual differences, such as consumer wealth, motivations for sustainable behavior, and income, are examined. The findings indicate that higher levels of CSR engagement significantly enhance purchase intentions, particularly when combined with higher price points, perhaps due to consumer perceptions of CSR programs associated with more expensive brands as more authentic. However, price remains a critical factor for lower-income consumers, revealing an “ethical consumption gap” where affordability outweighs ethical concerns. Extrinsic motivations, such as social pressure, strongly influence wealthier consumers’ decisions, while intrinsic motivations show a more complex relationship with purchasing behavior. The findings provide practical insights for fast fashion brands, suggesting that aligning CSR with competitive pricing and authentic messaging is crucial for appealing to both price-sensitive and ethically conscious consumers.
... A significant transformation has swept through the realm of customer expectations, primarily driven by the ongoing revolution in technological advancements (Ramakrishna et al., 2020;Wongmonta, 2021;Pal et al., 2023). Concurrently, a substantial increase in labor costs has imposed a pressing demand on the retail industry (Larue, 2020;Anner, 2020). This dynamic landscape compels retailers to undergo profound and comprehensive transformations. ...
... As a result, while the latter strategies are intended to counter the detrimental consequences of the price, delivery, and quality demands emanating from the former, they are simultaneously undermined by them (see eg Risgaard and Hammer 2011;Locke 2013;Alamgir and Banerjee 2018;Amengual et al 2020). For example, there is evidence showing that cost pressures exerted by global buyers may encourage such suppliers to sub-contract work to smaller firms and workers and even to the informal sector of the host country's economy, including homeworkersthereby raising the possibility that they may simultaneously act to improve OSH standards in first tier supplying organisations while encouraging work to be outsourced to less accessible organisations in which such standards are lower (Anner 2020;Alamgir and Banerjee 2018;Huq and Stevenson 2020;Soundararajan and Brown 2016). ...
Outlining the economic significance of the role of global supply chains (GSCs) in the organisation of the global economy, this paper initially presents some indications of health and safety outcomes in low- and middle-income counties (LMICs) where GSCs source much of the production destined for use in advanced economies. It goes on to discuss the operational dynamics of these chains and the corporate priorities that they reflect, which, it argues, do little to improve the poor work health and safety (WHS) outcomes in LMICs. It then examines evidence for the effectiveness of various private and public regulatory strategies that are claimed to bring about improved health and safety practices and outcomes among GSC suppliers in these countries. The paper critically evaluates this evidence and argues that, while there may be some examples of effective strategies and regulatory practices in particular contexts, their overall influence remains limited. It identifies and discusses the principal reasons for these limitations and concludes that the global regulation of conditions of labour – including WHS – at the end of GSCs falls well short of universal best practice and is, more generally, insufficient to counter the economic forces working against the maintenance of adequate standards of worker protection.
... O trabalho na costura em São Paulo, com forte presença da migração latino-americana e particularmente boliviana, é conhecido por se estruturar a partir do trabalho escravo contemporâneo urbano de migrantes internacionais indocumentados. A força de trabalho migrante submetida a condições de exploração desumanas é parte fundamental da dinâmica produtiva desse segmento econômico não apenas no Brasil, mas no conjunto das cadeias globais dirigidas por grandes compradores (Gereffi; Korzeniewicz, 1994), cujo símbolo, na indústria da moda, são as sweatshops (Anner, 2020;Mezzadri, 2017;Rosen, 2002;Taplin, 2014). ...
O artigo discute como a dinâmica da produção para o capital e a realidade de produção e reprodução da força de trabalho migrante estruturam as condições de trabalho de extrema precariedade a que essa população está submetida e, ao mesmo tempo, constituem barreiras à sua superação. A análise se apoia nos resultados da pesquisa de pós-doutorado realizada entre 2021 e início de 2023. A partir, principalmente, da experiência de mulheres de origem boliviana, trabalhadoras da costura em São Paulo, o artigo evidencia as opressões de raça e gênero como constitutivas da dinâmica de organização desse setor baseada na redução sistemática e profunda dos custos de reprodução social da força de trabalho imigrante. Com isso corroboramos as teses de que o trabalho escravo contemporâneo, bem como o trabalho precário e informal localizam-se no cerne da acumulação de capital e em sintonia com as tendências globais de flexibilização e precarização do trabalho.
... INTRODUCTION garment manufacturing, Islam et al. (2016) found that job dissatisfaction stemming from inadequate compensation and difficult working conditions significantly contributed to high turnover rates. Expanding on these insights, Anner (2020) highlighted the role of excessive overtime and production pressure in exacerbating worker dissatisfaction and turnover. His study of garment factories in Vietnam and Indonesia revealed that unrealistic production targets often led to forced overtime, contributing to worker burnout and eventual attrition. ...
Employee attrition presents a significant challenge, particularly in industries like garment manufacturing, where high turnover disrupts stability and growth. This abstract delves into the complexities of employee attrition within the garment sector, analyzing its causes, impacts, and strategies for mitigation. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the study combines quantitative data analysis with qualitative insights from interviews and surveys among industry professionals. The findings identify key drivers of attrition, such as job dissatisfaction, inadequate compensation, limited career advancement, and difficult working conditions. Additionally, the transient nature of the workforce, marked by temporary contracts and seasonal variations, further intensifies attrition rates. The study also explores effective strategies to retain employees, emphasizing the importance of competitive compensation, professional development opportunities, and creating a positive work environment. By comprehensively understanding the factors contributing to employee turnover, garment industry organizations can implement targeted interventions to improve retention, ultimately enhancing their overall performance and competitive edge in a fast-paced market. This analysis provides valuable insights for leaders seeking to navigate the challenges of employee attrition and develop more resilient, sustainable workforce strategies. INTRODUCTION Employee attrition, or turnover, is a pervasive issue that significantly impacts the operations and profitability of organizations across various industries. The garment manufacturing sector, characterized by its labor-intensive nature and often demanding working conditions, is particularly vulnerable to high attrition rates. This study aims to comprehensively examine the factors influencing employee attrition within the White House factory in Chennai, India, a prominent player in the garment manufacturing industry. The garment sector faces unique challenges in retaining employees, including the transient nature of the workforce, seasonal fluctuations in demand, and the potential for long working hours. These factors, coupled with inadequate compensation, limited career opportunities, and unsatisfactory working conditions, can lead to job dissatisfaction and ultimately, employee turnover. By delving into the complexities of employee attrition in the garment manufacturing industry, this study seeks to identify the key drivers of turnover, assess their impact on organizational performance, and explore effective strategies for mitigating attrition. A mixed-methods approach, incorporating both quantitative and qualitative data, will be employed to gain a comprehensive understanding of the issue. The findings of this study will provide valuable insights for garment industry leaders, enabling them to develop targeted interventions to improve employee retention, enhance organizational stability, and maintain a competitive edge in the market. By addressing the underlying causes of attrition, organizations can create a more positive and sustainable work environment that fosters employee engagement and loyalty.
... • The incident became a catalyst for advocacy and activism within the fashion industry. Calls for improved working conditions, fair wages, and sustainable production practices gained momentum, pushing brands to reassess their approach to manufacturing (Anner, 2020). ...
... • The incident became a catalyst for advocacy and activism within the fashion industry. Calls for improved working conditions, fair wages, and sustainable production practices gained momentum, pushing brands to reassess their approach to manufacturing (Anner, 2020). ...
... As such, Barrientos et al. (2011) demonstrate that economic upgrading does not automatically lead to better work conditions, and that unions, organizational interventions, legislation and multilateral initiatives among other factors are required to translate success of firms to the workers' welfare. In fact, purchasing practices of lead firms exacerbate workers' rights and working conditions in supplier factories, as demonstrated in apparel industry (Anner, 2020). Coe and Jordhus-Lier (2011) recognize the wider constraints imposed on labor agency and suggests that labor strategies should be exercised based upon the many spatial and temporal dimensions of a location. ...
Purpose
Global value chains (GVCs) are facing unprecedented pressures arising from structural changes in the global economy and exogenous shocks including military conflicts and the aftermath of COVID-19. Considering the importance of value chain analysis in the current environment, the purpose of the study is to provide an up-to-date overarching global value chain literature review study that offers suggestions for research and practice to ensure resilient value and supply chains.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors provide a comprehensive review of literature of the value chain, commodity chain and production network research based on a systems overview of 5,628 publications to identify the extent of research on vulnerabilities and resilience of value chains globally and gaps therein. To provide the systems overview, the authors use scientometric content co-occurrence analysis methods to analyze and identify gaps within the existing literature.
Findings
Based on this overarching review of the literature, the authors identify gaps in the literature primarily related to the issue of unpreparedness of value chains to exogenous shocks. The authors suggest future research directions and propose an integrative model along with recommendations for restructuring value chains for resilience amidst exogenous shocks.
Originality/value
This study carries out an overarching study of interdisciplinary GVC literature in the age of geopolitical and societal challenges and is thus able to offer holistic insights and propositions for future research.
... There have been widespread abuses of workers' rights in many international supply networks. Production workers in different sectors frequently endure precarious working circumstances, such as continuously low pay, extensive and typically forced overtime, dangerous workplaces, and restrictions on their ability to organize unions and engage in collective bargaining [6]. ...
Developing countries are struggling in economic development and trying to achieve sustainable development at a reasonable timeframe while keeping pace with world economic development, with the debate of achieving this goal at the cost of the quality of workers' lives, security, and opportunity. Countries like Bangladesh, which has comparatively cheap labor opportunities, are drawing more attention from concerned authorities (the International Labor Organization). This study aimed to assess some legal issues related to decent work and worker's rights in the selected seven industrial sectors in Chattogram. The study was conducted during the period from June to October 2022 to collect primary data for 392 samples using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were then done using SPSS 26. This study revealed a few critical findings. Giving appointment letters and ID cards in sample firms belonging to RMG, health and diagnostic, and beauty parlors is more common than other firms in sectors like restaurants, construction, transport, and aluminum. Maintaining the regulation of daily working hours is more visible in formal sectors, such as RMG and health and diagnostics. At the same time, three-wheeler vehicle' drivers are also motivated to work more time (in this case, 12 hours/7 days with some exceptions) due to earning more money. In this study, emergency fire exits are present in industrial settings, while the remaining respondents disagree in other sectors. Gender discrimination is more evident in the industrial workplace. Based on the findings, we suggest that workers' awareness and the supervision of regulatory agencies are highly sought after in all sectors, including formal and informal. More individual sectoral samples and regional coverage would help the study generalize the findings for policy implications.
... The RMG industry, synonymous with the clothing sector, has introduced significant societal changes in Bangladesh. Employing approximately 7.5 million individuals indirectly and 4.4 million directly (Anner, 2020), it comprises a substantial portion of Bangladesh's economy. The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) comprises 1,006 factory members, while the BKMEA has 512, with an additional 584 factories not affiliated with either association (Maped in Bangladesh, 2020; Chowdhury et al., 2020). ...
is a summary of entire paper should be written in Cambria with font size- 10. The Ready-Made Garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh plays a crucial role in the country's economy. Nonetheless, it frequently encounters challenges concerning workplace conditions, safety standards, and welfare services. This study investigates the participation committee's (PC) role in ensuring sustainable working conditions, workplace safety, and welfare within Bangladesh's RMG industry. Employing a qualitative research approach, the study conducted interviews with 30 respondents using semi-structured questions and employed a convenient sampling technique to select participants. The findings reveal that the participation committee has notably enhanced workplace safety in the RMG industry. Through active involvement, the committee has fostered improved communication between management and employees, leading to better working conditions, the eradication of labor rights neglect, and strengthened enforcement of national employment and labor regulations. The paper concludes by stressing the necessity for collaborative efforts involving stakeholders at various levels to consistently enhance workplace conditions, safety standards, and welfare services in Bangladesh's Ready-Made Garment industry. Originality in a study on participation committees in Bangladesh's ready-to-garment industry lies in presenting innovative approaches, methods, or insights, addressing literature gaps, or exploring uncharted territories, thus enhancing welfare services and workplace health and safety.
... Overtime payment according to labour legislation (s 108 BLA, 2006), may increase workers' welfare. But in practice, workers in the industries are not getting the standard rate for their overtime work (Anner 2020). ...
The paper focusses on workers’ opinions in regard to welfare policies enacted under the Bangladesh Labour Act 2006. The study investigates two questions: Do labour welfare policies under labour law really matter for workers? If so, to what extent are such welfare policies practised in the global garment supply chain industry in Bangladesh? The Binary Logistic Regression technique has been used to assess the opinions of garment workers as to whether their level of satisfaction increases by workers’ welfare facility interventions. The data were collected from compliant and export-oriented factories between July 2021 and August 2021 in three Upazilas-Savar Ashulia (Dhaka District) and Gazipur Sadar (Gazipur District) in Bangladesh. This study demonstrates that overtime facilities, medical facilities, safety measures, restroom facilities, lunchroom facilities, and childcare facilities can play a pivotal role in increasing the satisfaction level of the workers. Given the similar socio-economic and geographical backgrounds, this research can be applied to the garment manufacturing industries of other South Asian countries. It serves as a valuable tool for understanding workers' attitudes and beliefs about welfare provisions. By applying the findings of this study, one can better comprehend the needs of the workers in terms of various labor welfare motivational tools.
... With regards to the purchasing practices of international brands sourcing from Bangladesh RMG sector, issues such as last-minute style changes and expectations of unreasonable lead times 8 are very much present (Anner, 2020;Emran et al., 2019). Furthermore, the poor purchasing practices directly correlate to the inefficiencies in production planning since the lack of consistency in orders causes suppliers to book orders far above their production capacities in the hope that the production will remain high. ...
Over the last decades, the ready-made garment (RMG) industry in Bangladesh has experienced a remarkable economic growth becoming the backbone of the country’s economy. Nevertheless, the industry is still faced with unsustainable business practices that threaten to hinder the sector’s progress in the future. Among others, these include long working hours, unhealthy work environment, restricted ability of workers to organize, gender-based discrimination and shortage of skilled workforce, in particular mid-level managers. Hence, improvement of managerial knowledge and skills is seen as a necessity for the development of Bangladeshi RMG firms and introduction of sustainable business practices.
According to available research, general obstacles like expat hiring, discrepancy in supply and demand between the educational and industrial sectors, stark male to female occupational segregation and limited training opportunities impede the position of mid-level managers in the Bangladesh RMG sector. In addition to this, our findings indicate that mid-level managers in the Bangladesh RMG sector lack strategic knowledge of social sustainability issues. Furthermore, we perceived that mid-level managers possess underdeveloped soft skills, lack a deeper understanding of gender-related topics and specific needs of the female workers. Lastly, there is a lack of incentives from the side of the top-level management and factory owners in terms of providing mid-level managers further training to acquire the skills necessary for better performance.
This article reassesses the classic thesis linking the globalization of production to union decline. Our argument is three-fold. First, prior literature does not appreciate how the exchange conditions characterizing global value chain (GVC) relations between leading firms in rich democracies and supplier firms in less developed countries (LDCs) can undermine unionization through trade. Second, the worldwide entrenchment of GVCs as an organizational form over time, and cross-national variation in the strength and scope of two key labor market institutions (wage-coordination and Ghent systems), should moderate the effect of LDC trade on unionization. Third, trade with LDCs is endogenous in models of union decline, because high unionization often leads to offshoring. Empirically, we use an instrumental variable (IV) design and a panel dataset covering the longest historical period studied to date. IV estimates suggest that trade with LDCs reduces unionization in rich democracies; these estimates are nearly three times as large as results obtained by OLS, and they increase in size as GVCs entrench worldwide. Estimates also weaken in countries with highly coordinated wage-setting institutions and Ghent systems. Nevertheless, conditional effects and counterfactual histories suggest that GVCs cause union decline even in countries with the most union-friendly institutions, and were more important for union decline overall than either wage-coordination or Ghent systems.
The paper is to investigate how well healthcare institutions function and if health and safety at work (OHS) initiatives correlate. Healthcare systems all over are under more and more pressure to raise performance, lower expenses, and enhance service quality. This makes it essential to investigate how programs for occupational health and safety may assist to raise the general effectiveness of healthcare operations. Given the very demanding nature of healthcare environments, OHS programs are supposed to safeguard the health and safety of healthcare professionals. Still, their influence beyond worker protection and is rather crucial in determining the degree of organisational performance. Many studies were conducted at many different healthcare institutions with rigorous OHS policies. The research examined topics like staff efficiency, patient satisfaction, cost-effectiveness, and absence rates using quantitative approaches. The research used statistical analysis to establish clear relationships between implementing OHS procedures and improving the practical outcomes in the healthcare sector. Particularly improved safety and health for employees have been connected to lower absenteeism, less accidents on the workplace, and increased staff contentment. Since a healthier workforce leads in improved patient outcomes, shorter wait times, and more effective treatment procedures, these developments directly affect healthcare services. The findings reveal that operating efficiency of healthcare institutions that give health and safety top priority is probably superior. The connection between the two emphasises the need of including health and safety guidelines into healthcare management strategies not just to meet the regulations but also to enhance the way things run. The research also emphasises the requirement of OHS programs in ongoing assessment and adaptation to meet evolving healthcare demands.
How we manage operations – the domain of Operations Management (OM) – has important implications for the practice of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in organizations. Conversely, DEI goals have important implications for organizations’ OM practices. We outline the two-way links between DEI and OM to offer future research opportunities. In particular, we examine interactions between OM and DEI across four broad themes: (1) Workforce, (2) Supply Chains, (3) Health and Society, and (4) Technology, Platforms, and Innovation. We conclude with a discussion of DEI in OM as it relates to research and teaching. This article is a collaborative effort with the Senior Editors involved in the special issue of Production and Operations Management on “DEI in Operations and Supply Chain Management.”
While occupational health and safety scholarship has expanded in recent decades to include psychosocial hazards, there remains scant consideration of menstruation-related psychosocial hazards and harms, which women workers encounter at work. This article contributes to knowledge on menstruation-related workplace psychosocial hazards through examining the experiences of women working in the Bangladesh readymade garment industry. The article's purposes are threefold: first, to identify the psychosocial hazards that women workers experience during menstruation and the impacts on their physical and psychological health; second, to explain the prevalence of these psychosocial hazards; and third, to provide realistic regulatory and policy suggestions to eliminate these hazards in the emerging economy context. Using labour process theory, we argue that menstruation-related psychosocial hazards occurring in workplaces at the bottom of fast fashion supply chains where women workers continue to predominate are the product of systematic management strategies designed to secure capital accumulation through harnessing menstrual stigma in the organisational sphere. An understanding of the impacts of price and sourcing squeezes imposed on suppliers through global supply chains is crucial to informing practical policy interventions.
Debates on labor regimes situate worker outcomes at the intersection of globalized production and specific social formations, but they do not specify how and why labor regimes change over time. This article presents a new approach to explaining how labor regimes change in the global apparel industry, the labor-led profit squeeze approach, combining insights from global production networks (GPN), development economics and labor studies. This approach argues that workers’ bargaining power is largely conditional upon processes of structural transformation. The article demonstrates this conceptual approach through a comparative analysis of the apparel export industries in Madagascar, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
This particular writing shall explore the role of CSR i.e., Corporate Social Responsibility in building community resilience by evaluating measures like social sustainability, particularly taking into consideration its response to economic and environmental crises. The objective of CSR is driven from the responsibility for a business to go beyond their financial gains and contribute towards societal and environmental wellbeing. As the Multi-National Corporations and large scale businesses grow bigger, their impact on the community is in proportion to the sales that they make, especially those who work in the FMCG that is Fast Moving Consumer Goods industry become household brand to the masses and can significantly make its position in the industry resilient by taking the economic and environmental metric in consideration while determining profits. CSR initiatives such as education, healthcare, disaster preparedness, and sustainable livelihoods are some of the key strategies that major businesses make use of in order to support community resilience.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0), characterized by the integration of advanced digital technologies and intelligent systems, presents a transformative opportunity for achieving sustainable manufacturing. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of how Industry 4.0 technologies, such as artificial intelligence, the Industrial Internet of Things, blockchain, digital twins, big data analytics, advanced robotics, and additive manufacturing, can be leveraged to foster environmentally responsible, socially equitable, and economically viable industrial practices. The study examines the impact of these technologies across diverse industrial sectors and evaluates their effects on the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social. Specifically, the study identifies the manufacturing processes that most benefit from Industry 4.0, including resource efficiency, waste minimization, and supply chain optimization. It identifies key areas of manufacturing that stand to benefit, such as resource efficiency, waste reduction, and supply chain optimization. The analysis reveals that the enhanced connectivity and real-time data processing capabilities of Industry 4.0 technologies - such as real-time data acquisition, predictive maintenance and closed-loop manufacturing - improve supply chain transparency, enhance operational efficiency, reduce energy consumption, and promote the circular economy - leading to positive economic, and environmental outcomes. These advancements drive positive social outcomes, including improved workforce safety, the creation of new skill-based jobs, and more equitable access to digital infrastructure. However, the study also highlights that while these technologies can improve resource efficiency and reduce environmental impacts, their widespread implementation may also intensify social challenges, such as job displacement and inequality, and exacerbate environmental trade-offs, particularly in energy consumption. To navigate these complexities, the study proposes an integrative framework that encompasses technological, cultural, and policy dimensions, providing a valuable roadmap for aligning Industry 4.0 advancements with robust governance mechanisms and fostering a culture of sustainability within organizations and society at large.
Calls to improve labor conditions in global supply chains frequently urge more robust responsibility-taking by brands/buyers, various forms of state intervention, and respect for worker collective action. In this article, we examine perceptions of these paths to reform among workers and managers in Indonesia's export-oriented apparel sector during the COVID-19 pandemic. Extending research on labor regimes and global supply chains, we consider how both workplace cleavages and signals from buyers may shape local demands for reform. We use survey data from 96 factories to gauge perceptions among workers and managers, including a survey experiment on the effects of a distant brand/buyer pledge of support. Amidst conflicting interests and pandemic-era precarity, we find broad agreement among workers and managers on some measures, including local government intervention, general references to collective action, and even the contested issue of labor market flexibilization. A hypothetical promise of support from distant buyers had limited effects overall but did dampen some local demands among production workers. These findings imply that while combining responsible sourcing from above, mobilization from below, and state intervention is often desirable, buyer initiatives could hinder grassroots mobilization in some circumstances.
This is a study of the contracting practices of lead firms, who are buyers of garments, in the global market. Based on a survey of garment manufacturers in three clusters in India it reveals the trend to falling margins, reduced lead times, etc. for these contracted suppliers. These contracting practices are shown to connect, often directly, with labour outcomes, such as low wages, high workloads and forced overtime, in supplier factories. Within a joint but differentiated responsibility between lead firms and garment manufacturers, it argues for the prime responsibility of lead firms to provide for adequate wages and reduce the pressure for forced overtime in supplier factories.
This paper investigates the motivators and challenges in ensuring social sustainability practices in the apparel industry of Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. Utilizing a qualitative research design, the study conducted 30 in-depth semi-structured interviews with owners, managers, and workers within the industry to understand their vulnerabilities during the pandemic. The thematic analysis reveals that the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the apparel industry, particularly concerning workers’ health issues, financial hardship, and the inability to afford essentials such as food and future employment opportunities. This situation has intensified the conflict between workers’ livelihoods and health safety, posing a serious concern for all stakeholders in the apparel industry. Nonetheless, key motivators for maintaining social sustainability during the COVID-19 crisis include alleviating employees’ psychological dilemmas about working during this period, attracting foreign buyers, and promoting sustainable innovation and protection against competition. Consequently, this paper offers valuable insights for owners, managers, and policymakers in the apparel industry, aiding them in implementing innovative techniques to ensure social sustainability practices during crises.
This article traces contemporary debates on labour regulation related to state-led labour laws and voluntary compliance in a macro context of de-regulation, dilution of workers’ rights and deterioration of labour relations, which have resulted in a decline in migrant workers’ access to trade unions. It argues that non-compliance of state-led labour regulations and compliance of voluntary governance exacerbated the precarity and well-being of migrant workers. It then explores the role of two civil society organisations (CSOs) in southern India—Gram Vaani and Radio Active 90.4—that use technology in redressing migrant workers’ grievances. In the empirical context of the pandemic, when both state and state-led labour laws and voluntary compliance failed in protecting workers’ rights, the article finds that CSOs have emerged as significant actors in bridging the gap between trade unions and migrant workers. The paper critically examines the strengths and limitations of such collaboration and advocates union revitalisation and coalition strategies to strengthen the voice of migrant labour in a post-pandemic world of work and employment.
The combination of insights from sociological institutionalism and neo-Gramscianism underpins my main claim, which is that power dynamics in GVCs need to be understood in the context of institutions in different fields and at different levels. While economic logic can explain certain patterns of power asymmetries, the power dynamics among particular actors at particular times and places are shaped by the specifics of the context. Therefore, universal claims about the character of power relations in global sourcing need to be qualified by considerations of particular contexts. I will illustrate the arguments with examples drawn from smallholder agriculture.
Bangladesh, a country that has been a solid example of low levels of trade unionism in the last 40 years, is significantly influenced by globalisation and neoliberalism, the main factors contributing to the decline of trade unionism. These factors have played a key role in the decline, particularly in the ready-made garments (RMG) sector, which currently has only 5% to 10% union membership. As a result, millions of RMG workers work in shoddy factories with meagre minimum wages. At the same time, their RMG factories lack trade union rights and collective bargaining power, leading to extreme exploitation in the modern century. This article analyses the empirical data collected from Bangladesh to understand the reasons for the decline of trade unionism in Bangladesh over the last 40 years. The scholarly recommendations provided at the end of this article are a call to action for all stakeholders to contribute to the necessary structural changes in trade unionism in Bangladesh.
This study is designed to explore the impacts of the COVID pandemic on the socioeconomic status of textile workers and to suggest ways for balancing the turnover rate. For the study, a cross-sectional study design and mixed-method approach were employed. The researchers conducted a questionnaire survey of 357 textile workers using convenience sampling and, 5 KIIs, 20 IDIs, and 5 FGDs using purposive sampling. The study area was the Gazipur district of Bangladesh, a hub of the textile industry. Findings from Principle component analysis revealed that 54.38% of the total observed variation can be explained by five components. Working Environment (r =-0.699), Payment System (r = .987), Savings (r = .920), Employee Turnover Rate (r = .769), and Social Status (r = .558) of employees are identified by PCA as the most strongly correlated variables that have significant impacts on the socioeconomic condition of textile workers due to Covid 19 pandemic. Finally, through Logistic Regression Analysis, the study has found that Safe Working Environment (OR = 0.203, 95% CI 0.098-0.419), Satisfactory Payment Structure (OR = 2.196, 95% CI 1.354-3.561), and Provident Fund Facilities (OR = 2.908, 95% CI 1.497-5.651) can reduce the turnover rate of textile workers. Additionally, effective labor unions and adequate training facilities can also balance the adverse socioeconomic impacts on the textile workers.
Purpose
The paper explores the notion of worker voice in terms of its implications for supply chain justice. The paper proposes the value of the recognition perspective on social justice for framing workers’ experiences in global supply chains and identifies opportunities for the advancement of the worker voice agenda with recognition justice in mind.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts a conceptual approach to explore the notion of worker voice in supply chains in terms of the recognition perspective on social justice.
Findings
Sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) scholarship has considered worker voice in terms of two key paradigms, which we term communication and representation . To address recognition justice for workers in global supply chains, the worker voice agenda must consider designing worker voice mechanisms to close recognition gaps for workers with marginalised identities; the shared responsibilities of supply chain actors to listen alongside the expectation of workers to use their voice; and the expansion of the concept of worker voice to cut across home-work boundaries.
Originality/value
The paper offers conceptual clarity on the emerging notion of worker voice in SSCM and is the first to interrogate the implications of recognition justice for the emergent worker voice agenda. It articulates key opportunities for future research to further operationalise worker voice upon a recognition foundation.
This working paper reviews a promising approach for improving labour standards at the lower rungs of supply chains that has received relatively little scholarly attention: substantive, enforceable agreements between lead firms and unions or other worker-based organizations concerning conditions of work at lead firms' suppliers. In contrast to other approaches--including voluntary "CSR" initiatives and traditional collective bargaining with only direct employers--multiparty or “triangular” bargaining holds unique promise because it can address not only the conduct of suppliers but also the upstream sourcing and procurement practices of lead firms that often drive poor working conditions at the bottom of supply chains. Analyzing models of multiparty supply chain bargaining across various industries and geographic locales, we found that that the most successful efforts--in terms of positively affecting standards, sustaining these improvements over time, and reaching a large number of workers across multiple worksites--tend to follow a similar logic and incorporate similar policies to regulate lead firm supply chain procurement practices vis-a-vis suppliers. Successful agreements require lead firms to structure their sourcing and procurement practices to make providing decent work in the economic interest of suppliers, namely by sourcing exclusively, and on a long- term basis, with suppliers that are unionized or demonstrably comply with negotiated labour standards, and complementing these positive incentives with market consequences for suppliers, such as losing access to orders, if they violate the standards. Additionally, successful instruments oblige lead firms to help fund decent work, by requiring that the prices lead firms pay suppliers are sufficient to enable the supplier’s fulfilment of its labour obligations or requiring lead firms to contribute a premium on top of their regular payments which are passed on by the supplier to workers. We illustrate these and other key policies through discussion of key cases. We also review key issues concerning mechanisms for enforcing lead firm commitments, including co-governance, binding arbitration, enforcement in court, and transparency. The paper concludes with general observations concerning strategies and factors favouring the development of successful multiparty supply chain agreements.
This article describes a new method for constructing indicators of freedom of association and collective bargaining (FACB) rights based on the coding of violations in nine textual sources, including six from the ILO, and texts from national legislation. The indicators were constructed for 185 ILO member States for five years between 2000 and 2015 and launched in 2015 by the Center for Global Workers’ Rights at Penn State University, together with the Global Labour University. Following a Resolution by the International Conference of Labour Statisticians in October 2018, the method provides the basis for Sustainable Development Goal indicator 8.8.2 on labour rights.
Activists have exposed startling forms of labor exploitation and environmental degradation in global industries, leading many large retailers and brands to adopt standards for fairness and sustainability. This book is about the idea that transnational corporations can push these rules through their global supply chains, and in effect, pull factories, forests, and farms out of their local contexts and up to global best practices. For many scholars and practitioners, this kind of private regulation and global standard-setting can provide an alternative to regulation by territorially bound, gridlocked, or incapacitated nation states, potentially improving environments and working conditions around the world and protecting the rights of exploited workers, impoverished farmers, and marginalized communities. But can private, voluntary rules actually create meaningful forms of regulation? Are forests and factories around the world being made into sustainable ecosystems and decent workplaces? Can global norms remake local orders? This book provides striking new answers by comparing the private regulation of land and labor in democratic and authoritarian settings. Case studies of sustainable forestry and fair labor standards in Indonesia and China show not only how transnational standards are implemented “on the ground” but also how they are constrained and reconfigured by domestic governance. Combining rich multi-method analyses, a powerful comparative approach, and a new theory of private regulation, this book reveals the contours and contradictions of transnational governance.
An in-depth examination of the international fashion trade and related goods, this book raises visibility of the ethical aspects of promoting overconsumption through explaining the ecological damage resulting from the high rate of discarding old clothes. It focuses on the promotion, globalization, and integration of the apparel sector into our social and political landscape. It presents an expert overview of the garment industry, highlighting the harsh realities of the environmental and labor problems associated with it. It tracks the commercial and cultural factors that have led to the growth of fast fashion retail and its dominance of the entire industry.
Inequality in all its forms is the defining global problem and increasingly the defining political problem of our age. A monumental body of scholarly research seeks to understand the drivers behind the vast and accelerating patterns of socio-economic inequality in the global political economy. This article, an adapted version of the 2016 Martin Wight Memorial Lecture, contributes to this effort by focusing on a dimension of the picture which has received surprisingly little attention, namely, the implications for socio-economic inequality of the particular form of industrial organization that has come to underpin the contemporary global economy—one organized around global value chains and global production networks. It proposes an approach which sees inequality as arising at the intersections of three dimensions of asymmetry—asymmetries of market power, asymmetries of social power and asymmetries of political power—which underpin and crystallize around global value chains. It explores these dynamics in the particular arena of labour and labour exploitation in global value chains, as a means of shedding a valuable wide-angle beam on the big questions of power and inequality in the contemporary global political economy.
As the world economy becomes increasingly integrated, companies can shift production to wherever wages are lowest and unions weakest. How can workers defend their rights in an era of mobile capital? With national governments forced to compete for foreign investment by rolling back legal protections for workers, fair trade advocates are enlisting consumers to put market pressure on companies to treat their workers fairly. In Beyond the Boycott, sociologist Gay Seidman asks whether this non-governmental approach can reverse the "race to the bottom" in global labor standards. Beyond the Boycott examines three campaigns in which activists successfully used the threat of a consumer boycott to pressure companies to accept voluntary codes of conduct and independent monitoring of work sites. The voluntary Sullivan Code required American corporations operating in apartheid-era South Africa to improve treatment of their workers; in India, the Rugmark inspection team provides 'social labels' for handknotted carpets made without child labor; and in Guatemala, COVERCO monitors conditions in factories producing clothing under contract for major American brands. Seidman compares these cases to explore the ingredients of successful campaigns, as well as the inherent limitations facing voluntary monitoring schemes. Despite activists' emphasis on educating individual consumers to support ethical companies, Seidman finds that, in practice, they have been most successful when they mobilized institutions-such as universities, churches, and shareholder organizations. Moreover, although activists tend to dismiss states' capabilities, all three cases involved governmental threats of trade sanctions against companies and countries with poor labor records. Finally, Seidman points to an intractable difficulty of independent workplace monitoring: since consumers rarely distinguish between monitoring schemes and labels, companies can hand pick monitoring organizations, selecting those with the lowest standards for working conditions and the least aggressive inspections. Transnational consumer movements can increase the bargaining power of the global workforce, Seidman argues, but they cannot replace national governments or local campaigns to expand the meaning of citizenship. As trade and capital move across borders in growing volume and with greater speed, civil society and human rights movements are also becoming more global. Highly original and thought-provoking, Beyond the Boycott vividly depicts the contemporary movement to humanize globalization-its present and its possible future. Copyright © 2007 by the American Sociological Association. All rights reserved.
Global industrialization is the result of an integrated system of production and trade. Open international trade has encouraged nations to specialize in different branches of manufacturing and even in different stages of production within a specific industry. This process, fueled by the explosion of new products and new technologies since World War II, has led to the emergence of a global manufacturing system in which production capacity is dispersed to an unprecedented number of developing as well as industrialized countries (Harris, 1987; Gereffi, 1989b). The revolution in transportation and communications technology has permitted manufacturers and retailers alike to establish international production and trade networks that cover vast geographical distances. While considerable attention has been given to the involvement of industrial capital in international contracting, the key role played by commercial capital (i.e., large retailers and brand-named companies that buy but don't make the goods they sell) in the expansion of manufactured exports from developing countries has been relatively ignored.
This chapter will show how these ‘big buyers’ have shaped the production networks established in the world's most dynamic exporting countries, especially the newly industrialized countries (NICs) of East Asia. The argument proceeds in several stages. First, a distinction is made between producer-driven and buyer-driven commodity chains, which represent alternative modes of organizing international industries. These commodity chains, though primarily controlled by private economic agents, are also influenced by state policies in both the producing (exporting) and consuming (importing) countries.
Second, the main organizational features of buyer-driven commodity chains are identified, using the apparel industry as a case study. The apparel commodity chain contains two very different segments. The companies that make and sell standardized clothing have production patterns and sourcing strategies that contrast with firms in the fashion segment of the industry, which has been the most actively committed to global sourcing. Recent changes within the retail sector of the United States are analyzed in this chapter to identify the emergence of new types of big buyers and to show why they have distinct strategies of global sourcing.
Third, the locational patterns of global sourcing in apparel are charted, with an emphasis on the production frontiers favored by different kinds of US buyers. Several of the primary mechanisms used by big buyers to source products from overseas are outlined in order to demonstrate how transnational production systems are sustained and altered by American retailers and branded apparel companies.
Purpose
– This paper seeks to examine the various actors responsible for the recent tragedy at a clothing factory in Bangladesh. Rather than focusing on the actual factory owner, it evaluates the broader structural and institutional factors, plus a particular Western retailer strategy of fast fashion, that together explain the practical inevitability of such tragedies.
Design/methodology/approach
– As a case study of a particular incident, it presents data from newspaper accounts and descriptive statistics to evaluate the broader context of an industrial accident.
Findings
– By examining the full context of the incident, it becomes apparent that there were systemic issues that effectively encouraged many parties to engage in workplace policies that almost inevitably can lead to accidents or at least labor abuses. Finally, blame is apportioned to Western consumers whose insatiable appetite for “fashionable” goods merely feeds a retail system that was set up to resolve earlier supply chain problems and ended up taking advantage of changing international trade regimes.
Originality/value
– The paper takes a much broader examination and analysis of institutional factors that shape work conditions than studies that focus merely on labor-management issues.
This article outlines a framework for the analysis of economic integration and its relation to the asymmetries of economic and social development. Consciously breaking with state-centric forms of social science, it argues for a research agenda that is more adequate to the exigencies and consequences of globalization than has traditionally been the case in 'development studies'. Drawing on earlier attempts to analyse the cross-border activities of firms, their spatial configurations and developmental consequences, the article moves beyond these by proposing the framework of the 'global production network' (GPN). It explores the conceptual elements involved in this framework in some detail and then turns to sketch a stylized example of a GPN. The article concludes with a brief indication of the benefits that could be delivered by research informed by GPN analysis.
Why have twenty years of efforts to improve working conditions and protect workers’ rights in global supply chains for apparel products been mostly unsuccessful? We argue that this is because extant efforts to increase labor compliance have focused on the practices of suppliers and the countries in which they reside while ignoring the larger supply chain dynamics affecting apparel producers. Any initiative to eradicate sweatshop conditions in clothing factories worldwide must recognize that the buyer-driven dynamic of the apparel supply chain results in systematic cost pressures that are conducive to violations of workers’ rights. We first develop this argument by exploring the relationship between the price lead firms pay for imported apparel and respect for global workers’ rights in today’s top apparel-exporting countries. We then turn our attention to a historical analysis of how the sourcing dynamics and the pricing practices of lead firms, and the unequal bargaining relations between buyers and suppliers that underlie them, were addressed in the United States by a system of “jobbers agreements” throughout much of the twentieth century. Jobbers agreements, which were the driving force behind a dramatic improvement in wages and working conditions for domestic garment workers, constrained buyer power in two ways: 1) by insuring that lead firms paid the contractors a fair price; and 2) by stabilizing and regulating subcontracting relationships. We conclude by asking how these same principles might be applied in the context of today’s global supply chains for apparel products.
A key challenge in promoting decent work worldwide is how to improve the position of both firms and workers in value chains and global production networks driven by lead firms. This article develops a framework for analysing the linkages between the economic upgrading of firms and the social upgrading of workers. Drawing on studies which indicate that firm upgrading does not necessarily lead to improvements for workers, with a particular focus on the Moroccan garment industry, it outlines different trajectories and scenarios to provide a better understanding of the relationship between economic and social upgrading.
This article builds a theoretical framework to help explain governance patterns in global value chains. It draws on three streams of literature – transaction costs economics, production networks, and technological capability and firm-level learning – to identify three variables that play a large role in determining how global value chains are governed and change. These are: (1) the complexity of transactions, (2) the ability to codify transactions, and (3) the capabilities in the supply-base. The theory generates five types of global value chain governance – hierarchy, captive, relational, modular, and market – which range from high to low levels of explicit coordination and power asymmetry. The article highlights the dynamic and overlapping nature of global value chain governance through four brief industry case studies: bicycles, apparel, horticulture and electronics.
Lead firms in apparel global supply chains are increasingly using social compliance programmes that require worker-management participation committees in their supplier factories. These committees are designed to ensure respect for internationally recognized labour standards, to empower workers, and to reduce labour unrest. However, these committees have remained weak, and in countries such as Vietnam worker unrest remains common. This article argues that this is because lead firms in these CSR programmes are imposing a ‘sourcing squeeze’ on supplier factors by reducing the prices and production times they allot to their suppliers, which undermines efforts by committees to address cost-sensitive issues and overtime violations. At the same time, the sourcing squeeze increases strike leverage, providing workers with a much more effective source of worker voice.
In this chapter, Suresh Kotha and Sandip Basu describe the effects of recent technological changes on retailing, in particular the development of the Internet and of overnight delivery services. The Internet and online retailing have given rise to new retailing formats for selling traditional products, such as in the case of Amazon.com and books. In addition, these new technologies have generated new forms of market making. One of the best and most successful examples is eBay.com, which brings together millions of buyers and sellers in a cyber marketplace. Online shopping has also impacted on incumbent retailers, whether they see the Internet as just another marketing channel or a new approach to retailing. Some existing retailers, such as Wal-Mart, are trying largely to use an online presence to leverage their physical assets, but that could change in the future. Online retailers are still in the process of discovering what works and what does not, although it appears that the current global recession has substantially increased people's willingness to buy and sell online. Broadband connectivity has given a major boost to online retailing. The next stage, just beginning to emerge, may be global online retailing. Finally, the easy availability of information on the Internet, especially with the development of sophisticated search engines, such as Google, has helped create more knowledgeable consumers. Even if they do not buy online, by using the Internet, many consumers now are much better informed than in the past. When potential customers who have searched on the Internet come into automobile dealerships, for instance, they may literally know as much about the car models and pricing as the salesperson.
This book examines and evaluates various private initiatives to enforce fair labor standards within global supply chains. Using unique data (internal audit reports, and access to more than 120 supply chain factories and 700 interviews in 14 countries) from several major global brands, including NIKE, HP, and the International Labor Organization's Factory Improvement Programme in Vietnam, this book examines both the promise and the limitations of different approaches to actually improve working conditions, wages, and working hours for the millions of workers employed in today's global supply chains. Through a careful, empirically grounded analysis of these programs, this book illustrates the mix of private and public regulation needed to address these complex issues in a global economy.
This book describes and analyzes the transformation that occurred in retailing in the last half of the twentieth century and demonstrates that this transformation has substantially changed the global economy. This transformation is both obvious and largely unrecognized. It is obvious, because the transformation is a part of our everyday lives. In the United States, in 1954, there were only 500 shopping centers across the country, most of which were by today's standard very small. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, the shopping centers in the USA alone number over 50,000, many of which are gargantuan. This same expansion is happening throughout the world. In fact, the largest shopping centers are no longer in the USA, but are scattered around the globe. Many of the newest and largest of them are now in Asia. As pervasive and obvious as these changes are, there has been surprisingly little research on the global effects of retailing. This book is among the first books to address this important topic in a systematic and highly readable manner. The authors demonstrate that retailers and merchandisers increasingly organize the global economy by developing two types of markets, consumer markets and supplier markets. Using point-of-sales information, retailers anticipate and try to create consumer markets for the goods they sell. Based on this information, retailers also create and maintain supplier markets for the goods that they buy from manufacturers and that they in turn sell to consumers. Retailers attempt to "make" both types of markets, by setting prices and the terms and conditions of exchange. The extraordinary success that retailers and merchandisers have enjoyed in making both types of markets has had far-reaching consequences on how all national economies perform in an age of global retailing.
For much of the twentieth century, large companies employing many workers formed the bedrock of the U.S. economy. Today, on the list of big business's priorities, sustaining the employer-worker relationship ranks far below building a devoted customer base and delivering value to investors. As David Weil's groundbreaking analysis shows, large corporations have shed their role as direct employers of the people responsible for their products, in favor of outsourcing work to small companies that compete fiercely with one another. The result has been declining wages, eroding benefits, inadequate health and safety conditions, and ever-widening income inequality.From the perspectives of CEOs and investors, fissuring--splitting off functions that were once managed internally--has been a phenomenally successful business strategy, allowing companies to become more streamlined and drive down costs. Despite giving up direct control to subcontractors, vendors, and franchises, these large companies have figured out how to maintain quality standards and protect the reputation of the brand. They produce brand-name products and services without the cost of maintaining an expensive workforce. But from the perspective of workers, this lucrative strategy has meant stagnation in wages and benefits and a lower standard of living--if they are fortunate enough to have a job at all.Weil proposes ways to modernize regulatory policies and laws so that employers can meet their obligations to workers while allowing companies to keep the beneficial aspects of this innovative business strategy.
A groundbreaking analysis of a hotly contested business model, Private Equity at Work provides an unprecedented analysis of the little-understood inner workings of private equity and of the effects of leveraged buyouts on American companies and workers.
We posit that traditional employment relations theories that focus on individual firms embedded in distinct national institutional contexts are no longer adequate for the analysis of employment relations in a globalized era where production and services are increasingly coordinated across countries and firms. Building on global value chain theory, we introduce a configurational framework that explicitly addresses the employment relations implications of the interconnections within and between firms in the global economy. We argue that different value chain configurations will evidence different employment relations patterns, and we validate our framework by applying it to the study of three contemporary global issues. In sum, the framework permits a shift in the focus of employment relations scholarship away from the individual firm to the global networks in which they belong, and hence provides a new theoretical lens for the analysis of employment relations in the global economy.
The textile and fashion industries have forever been at the mercy of rapidly changing styles and fickle customers who want the latest designs while they are still fashionable. The result for these businesses, often forced to forecast sales and deal with suppliers based on volatile demand, is a history of stock shortages, or costly markdowns. But, as the authors disclose in A Stitch in Time, technological advances that began in the 1980s introduced a new concept in retailing—lean retailing. Pioneered by entrepreneurs such as Sam Walton and WAL-MART and made possible by new information technologies for tracking sales data, lean retailing has enabled apparel producers to reorganize the manner in which they related to retail customers, undertook distribution, forecasted and planned production, and managed supplier relations. In an industry that typically suffered from great delays from warehouse to rack, sales data was now captured at the retailer’s checkout through bar coding and immediately transmitted back to distributors, manufacturers, designers, and even to the textile mills that weave the cloth. Armed with up-to-the-minute data about colors, sizes, and geographic sales, everyone in the chain was able to reduce cost, increase efficiency, and keep the customer in style like never before. And today, the broad changes introduced in the apparal industry by lean retailing are rippling through a growing segment of the American economy. A richly detailed and resonant account, A Stitch in Time brilliantly captures both the history and the future of the fashion industry as it offers executives a new paradigm for understanding the challenges of retailing and manufacturing in all segments of our rapidly transforming economy.
Corporations have increasingly turned to voluntary, multi-stakeholder governance programs to monitor workers’ rights and standards in global supply chains. This article argues that the emphasis of these programs varies significantly depending on stakeholder involvement and issue areas under examination. Corporate-influenced programs are more likely to emphasize detection of violations of minimal standards in the areas of wages, hours, and occupational safety and health because focusing on these issues provides corporations with legitimacy and reduces the risks of uncertainty created by activist campaigns. In contrast, these programs are less likely to emphasize workers’ rights to form democratic and independent unions, bargain, and strike because these rights are perceived as lessening managerial control without providing firms with significant reputational value. This argument is explored by coding 805 factory audits of the Fair Labor Association between 2002 and 2010, followed by case studies of Russell Athletic in Honduras, Apple in China, and worker rights monitoring in Vietnam.
Global value chain (GVC) governance is central to analyses of labour's strategic options. It frames the terrain on which labour campaigns and institutions — such as private social standards and international framework agreements — contribute to the social regulation of value chains. GVC concepts help to emphasize how power in the employment relationship transcends organizational boundaries, as well as how industrial power is shifting from the sphere of production to that of consumption. Based on extensive case studies of the banana and cut flower value chains, we explore the implications of GVC restructuring for the scope and form of labour rights strategies. Full text of this article is not currently available on the LRA. The published version of this article is available on the publisher's website at: http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0007-1080 , DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8543.2009.00744.x
Summary Although the ultimate success of labor regulation in many economic sectors depends on a combination of state and private actors, to date, researchers have not studied the interaction between state and private regulation. What happens when these forms of regulation meet on the factory floor? Based on a case study of labor inspection and code of conduct implementation in the Dominican Republic, this paper argues that the comparative advantages of state and private actors can drive complementary state-private regulation. These findings suggest that private-voluntary initiatives can reinforce, rather than displace, state regulation.
This paper links the financialization of non-financial corporations to the extensive development of global value chains by these corporations. The main focus is the US and its offshoring in China. Financialization has encouraged a restructuring of production, with firms narrowing their scope to core competence. And the rising ability of firms to disintegrate production vertically and internationally has allowed them to maintain cost mark-upsand thus profits and shareholder valueeven in a context of slower economic growth. The resulting rise in the profit share has not supported dynamic gains from offshoring as often predicted, since financialization pressures have reduced fixed investment to allow for higher dividend payments, share buybacks, M&A activity and other financial asset purchases. The paper explores the sustainability of the global value chainfinancialization link and its operation in other industrialized countries. The conclusion briefly considers the role of the non-financial corporate sector in the face of the current financial sector decline.
Codes of conduct covering the employment conditions of Southern producers exporting to European markets mushroomed throughout the 1990s, especially in the horticulture sector linking UK and European supermarkets with export firms in Africa. The majority of employment in this sector is “informal,” a significant proportion of which is female. This paper explores the gender sensitivity of codes currently applied in the African export horticulture sector from an analytical perspective that combines global value chain and gendered economy approaches. Through an analysis of these two approaches, it develops a “gender pyramid,” which provides a framework for mapping and assessing the gender content of codes of conduct. The pyramid is applied to codes that cover employment conditions in three commodity groups and countries exporting to European markets: South African fruit, Kenyan flowers and Zambian vegetables and flowers. It concludes that the gender sensitivity of codes needs to be greatly enhanced if they are to adequately address employment conditions relevant to informal and especially women workers.
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