Suppliers for global fashion brands silencing garment works

A new report by non-profit UK labour rights organisation, Labour Behind the Label, reveals that global fashion groups and brands, including Levi’s, Next, H&M, Gap, Inditex, Carrefour and Primark, are using a broken billion-dollar audit system that is “systematically silencing garment workers in Pakistan” despite widespread evidence of labour abuses in the sector.

The 43-page ‘Silenced: How wage ‘compliance’ is failing workers in Pakistan’ report investigated conditions in factories supplying 15 international fashion brands, and found that “superficial compliance systems” are dismissing workers' complaints of unlawful wages, excessive working hours, harassment, bullying, surveillance and intimidation.

Drawing on testimonies of 255 workers across eight factories in Pakistan, Labour Behind the Label states that workers can’t report abuse, such as systematic underpayment and exploitation, without risking disciplinary action, including loss of earnings or dismissal, as fear and retaliation “are built into factory grievance systems”.

Labour Behind the Label investigates how wage “compliance” is failing workers in Pakistan

The investigation found that 80 percent of workers had no copy of their contract, meaning no proof of their terms of employment; 65 percent reported not receiving a payslip, and two thirds reported being required to work overtime, often under pressure, and 62 percent of these said they were not paid the legally required double rate for those hours.

When skill level and overtime entitlements are properly accounted for, 65 percent of workers reported earning less than the legal minimum compensation, with 71 percent adding that their wages were “insufficient to meet basic household needs”. 

But when it comes to raising issues, the report found that in some factories, complaint boxes are placed directly beneath surveillance cameras, while ‘internal hotlines,’ designed to offer factory workers anonymity to report issues, are positioned in full view of factory management and colleagues.

A worker interviewed for the report from the Artistic Milliners factory in Karachi, which supplies Zara owner Inditex, said: “We all know, if you file a complaint, you will be terminated.”

This supports the case in January, when a group of 50 workers were dismissed after raising concerns about unpaid bonuses at Combined Fabrics in Lahore, which produces garments for Levi’s.

Alongside a culture of fear at the factories, the report also exposes a broken auditing system at the heart of the fashion industry, as the labour rights organisation states that many international fashion brands are using “inadequate, periodic and inconsistent social auditing” to monitor labour conditions in their supply chains.

When workers report abuse to auditors, the report adds that it is ignored or systematically unrecorded “because audits prioritise paperwork over people,” while other evidence in the report suggests that some factories actively manipulate audits.

Are international fashion brands doing enough to support supply chain workers?

According to the report, most international brands “do the bare minimum to comply with local laws and international standards” and continue to employ an auditing system that is widely understood “to fail to reflect real working conditions rather than pushing for change”.

The garment and textile sector accounts for roughly 60 percent of Pakistan’s total exports and employs 15 million people in the full national supply chain, making it a vital driver of the national economy; however, persistently high inflation, which has soared to 11.7 percent this year, has eroded real wages, placing an additional strain on workers and households.

Anna Bryher, policy lead for Labour Behind the Label, said in a statement: “Fashion is facing a credibility crisis. For far too long, international brands have relied on tick-box compliance and superficial audit systems that fail to capture the realities experienced by workers in Pakistan. The legitimacy of how brands say they can source from low-wage production countries where exploitation is rife is at stake.

“A culture of fear cannot be fixed by policies alone, it requires listening to workers and making their testimony central to how their rights are protected. Real remedy must place workers and trade unions at the centre of efforts to ensure workers have a meaningful voice in improving their workplaces.”

Fashion brands respond to Labour Behind the Label report

Labour Behind the Label, which supports garment workers’ efforts worldwide to improve their working conditions, believes that many fashion brands are “failing in their responsibility to prevent human rights abuses from occurring or to provide remedy for workers at risk in their supply chains”.

They add that they have shared the findings with the major international brands included in the report, and some, including Lidl and Carrefour, have stated that they have commissioned “a third party” to assess the findings. Others, including Asda, said they would raise concerns from this investigation with its supplier US Apparel, while Inditex confirmed a “corrective action plan” had been established with its suppliers Artistic Milliners, Interloop, Rajby Enterprises, Soorty Enterprises, Stylers International, Tauseef Enterprises and US Apparel, and S.Oliver said “remediation efforts had commenced” with its suppliers Soorty Enterprises and Stylers International.

British brand Next said it had agreed “a corrective action plan” with US Apparel and report improvements such as better communication with HR, clearer payslip information and more transparent overtime consent processes, while Primark stated it had taken part in the joint investigation at US Apparel to address issues and that they already had an existing joint programme of work in collaboration with other brands at Soorty and “have built on this to incorporate the findings of this investigation”.

Global fashion retail group H&M, which works with Soorty Enterprises and US Apparel, confirmed a coordinated approach had been taken in collaboration with other brands and confirmed verification processes had taken place regarding social security registration and employment contracts, and that ‘root causes’ had been identified and addressed with training, including gaps in internal supplier systems, communication practices and payroll administration processes. It also added that they have developed “a specific due diligence strategy for Pakistan,” including more regular visits and follow-up.

Levi’s said they conducted their own assessment at Artistic Milliners and Combined Fabrics and “did not substantiate the findings of this investigation,” and Kontoor, which works with Artistic Milliners and Interloop, reported that both facilities showed compliance with legal requirements on minimum wage, appointment letters, payslips and overtime payments.

Khalid Mahmood, director of Labour Education Foundation Pakistan, added: “If brands are serious about responsible business, they must move beyond audit-driven compliance and invest in systems that guarantee freedom of association and place workers at the centre of monitoring and remediation.

“Workers are not just beneficiaries of due diligence; they are its most credible source of evidence. As long as workers are denied freedom of association and a genuine voice, brands will keep hearing what factories want them to hear instead of what workers are forced to endure.”

How can fashion brands support workers?

In the report, Labour Behind the Label shares several recommendations for brands, including adding community-based monitoring mechanisms in place to ensure that the testimony of workers is gathered offsite in relationships of trust and work with suppliers to ensure that factory cultures prioritise respect and that it is clearly communicated to workers that they are protected from retaliation, so workers are free to raise grievances about their employment conditions without fear, addressing dismissals and recruitment practices as a first point.

For suppliers, the labour rights organisation wants legal wage compliance for all workers, work towards payment of a living wage for all workers, and for them to work alongside community-based monitoring approaches to act to remedy cases raised bilaterally from worker rights groups.

This new report follows Labour Behind the Label’s 2023 report, ‘Hanging on By a Thread’, which reported that minimum wage violations were common, working hours were excessive, and a large majority of workers did not have proper proof of employment.