A new report by Oxfam Australia, with support from the Human Rights Law Centre, presents evidence of widespread and systemic labour rights violations, including widespread exploitation and child labour, across Bangladesh's garment supply chain.
Drawing on more than one dozen focus group discussions and key informant interviews and surveying over 400 workers, the report Unravelling Exploitation - Exposing the Need for Responsible Business Laws in Fashion Supply Chains, exposes how the current sourcing model enables and sustains conditions that amount to modern slavery. These issues may impact many Australian fashion brands sourcing from Bangladesh.
With a particular focus on workers in informal workplaces, the report exposes a shadow system of subcontracting and home-based production where children are employed, wages are withheld, and abusive conditions are rife.
The research uncovered:
- Widespread evidence of children being employed in subcontracted settings.
- Forced labour was self-reported by 28% of workers, while 95% of factory workers surveyed are paid below a living wage — rising to 100% among women.
- More than one in five workers experienced wage delays or deductions.
- Job insecurity, coercive financial control, physical violence and verbal abuse permeate the industry.
- Almost one quarter of interviewees said fingerprint-based attendance systems were used for blacklisting.
Oxfam Australia Campaign and Advocacy Lead Nina Crawley said the report findings are shocking but not surprising.
"Our research serves as a stark reminder that the clothes Australians buy may come at the cost of someone else's safety and dignity. For too long, Australian fashion brands have relied on opaque and exploitative supply chains to maximise profit. Workers must be placed at the centre of reforms to build a fashion industry where exploitation has no place. We urgently need strong, enforceable laws to hold them accountable and protect workers from harm."
Despite the introduction of Australia's Modern Slavery Act in 2018, legislation has largely failed to drive meaningful change. It currently relies on voluntary corporate reporting, with no penalties for inaction - turning it into a box-ticking exercise for many companies.
This report adds to the weight of evidence calling for stronger responsible business laws including - stand-alone mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence legalisation and a ban on imports made with forced labour.
Human Rights Law Centre's Associate Legal Director Freya Dinshaw said the research supports the need for urgent action to strengthen Australia's framework for addressing modern slavery.
"Buying clothes should never come at the expense of someone else's freedom. The Albanese Government must do more to ensure that the people who make the clothes we wear can live and work in safety and dignity. We need strong holistic laws that require companies to investigate and prevent serious abuses like modern slavery in their supply chains, and impose hard consequences if they don't. Australia must also ban imported goods made with forced labour so they don't end up on our shop shelves."
Bangladeshi labour activist and former child worker Kalpona Akter said stronger laws overseas, such as the EU's mandatory human rights due diligence directive, offer a clearer path forward.
"If we have that law, and if that is mandatory, and if rights holders have access to justice or remedy — then yes, that will transform the whole supply chain."
Oxfam and Human Rights Law Centre are calling on the Australian Government to:
- Strengthen the Modern Slavery Act to require companies to take action to address modern slavery risks, with penalties for non-compliance.
- Introduce new responsible business laws that require companies to undertake human rights and environmental due diligence.
- Ban imports made with forced labour.
This report builds on Oxfam Australia's labour rights work and existing What She Makes campaign. Oxfam's What She Makes campaign launched in 2017 and has been calling, in solidarity with workers, for a living wage for the women who make our clothes.
