All social & labour laws are being complied with - AEPC
17 Sep '07
3 min read
Recently, a leading agency revealed that ready made garments manufactured by Indian companies like Texport & Gokaldas Exports for leading retailers like Marks & Spencer, Gap and Primark etc were violating the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), a code of conduct which sets out basic rights for employees across the supply chain.
The ETI code states that workers shall not regularly be required to work more than 48 hours per week, that overtime should be voluntary and that it should not exceed 12 hours per week.
Allegations were that the Indian workers were underpaid (below the living wage), forced to work overtime and were abused.
Based on unverified information given by the local workers' union – affiliated to some powerful International NGOs – the paper had compared Indian Apparel companies to sweat shops operating in Vietnam, China and Bangladesh.
Claiming this to be false and malicious propaganda Vijay Agarwal, Chairman Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), the apex body of Indian apparel exporters set up by the Ministry of Textiles says “The working conditions in Indian companies are far better than those in Bangladesh, Indonesia, China etc."
"All Social compliance norms and labour laws are being complied with. What has happened is that some International NGOs are intentionally feeding false and incorrect information about Indian companies which is being lapped up by the British media.”
The ETI statesthat each worker should get “living wages” – but there is no legal or industry-agreed definition of a living wage and it varies from country to country – city to city.
marketing@alchempro.com
