A fair day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay
It has become increasingly apparent that a minimum living wage figure is needed across Asia. The Asia Floor Wage Alliance are a large coalition of workers’ labour organisations spread across Asia, supported by trade unions, labour NGOs, anti-sweatshop movements, and scholars from Europe and the USA. Together they have come up with a calculation of this figure to prevent wage competition between Asian garment-exporting countries and halt the race to the bottom.
One of the root causes of poverty wages in the industry is the power of global buyers to constantly relocate production in search of ever lower prices and better terms of trade. This power is used to exert a downward pressure on wages and conditions – labour being one of the few ‘production costs’ or ‘inputs’ that can be squeezed. The basic idea of the Asia Floor Wage (AFW) is to put a ‘floor’ under this, thereby preventing this competition from forcing wages below poverty levels and making sure gains are more equitably shared along the supply chain.
The Asia Floor Wage coalition have formulated a unified, regional demand for a wage which is decent and fair and which can be standardised and compared between countries. This means that workers need no longer be in competition with each other to offer to work at lower pay rates in order to attract business.
This regional collective bargaining strategy will unite workers and their allies from different Asian countries behind this demand. The goal is to attain a standardized minimum living wage for workers across Asia through negotiations between garment industry employers and workers’ representative organisations, and with the mediation and support of governments, intergovernmental organisations and social movements.
A number of brands have highlighted the need for governments to set minimum wages that meet living wage levels. We agree. The AFW coalition aims to campaign on a national level for governments and industry to accept the floor wage figures and adjust minimum wage levels accordingly. If all governments do this at more or less the same time, wages can be increased without risk of relocation of production. Investment from the global garment industry can be distributed more equitably down the chain and, in turn, the buying power of garment workers will be increased. It is hoped that such a move could contribute to the promotion of a more development-led growth. Such growth may enable the industry to match the economic development claims currently made in its favour.
The Asia Floor Wage campaign will go public on October 7th 2009. If retailers choose to support the campaign and recognise the wage demands it makes as legitimate, and engage with trade unions, activists and campaigners involved in the alliance, we could stand to see huge improvements in the state of pay behind the UK high street.
Brands and retailers exercise a lot of influence over the way that production is organised. They set prices and determine how production takes place. Global buyers need to absorb the cost of increased wages by paying higher prices to suppliers. Since wages represent only a small percentage of the retail price – normally 0.5 – 1.5 percent – the AFW Alliance believes that the supply chain has the capacity to absorb such wage increases without too much difficulty.
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