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Human Rights and the Transnational Garment Industry in South and
South-East Asia: a Focus on Labour Rights
by J. G. Frynas*
Paper presented at the International Conference
of the Comparative Interdisciplinary Studies Section (CISS) of the
International Studies Association (ISA), Renaissance Mayflower Hotel,
29-30 August 2000, Washington DC, USA.
Abstract
In the last several decades, labour-intensive industries such as
garment production have increasingly been re-located from developed
countries to developing countries with lower labour costs. In many
of these developing countries, the standards of human rights are
lower and the garment firms violate some of the key internationally
accepted human rights. This paper examines the impact of transnational
garment firms on human rights in South and South-East Asia by focusing
on labour rights.
UN human rights standards and International Labour Organization
(ILO) norms form the basis for the analysis of the impact of garment
firms on human rights in this paper. Combining a number of core
labour rights stipulated by the UN and the ILO, this paper focuses
on the following ten rights and prohibitions: the right to form
and join trade unions; the right to freedom from discrimination;
the prohibition of forced or compulsory labour; the prohibition
(or limitation) of child labour; the right to leisure and rest during
work; the right to equality of treatment between home workers and
other wage earners; the right to an 8-hour day or a 48-hour week;
the right to a healthy and safe working environment; the right to
a minimum wage and the prohibition of firing a worker without a
valid reason related to the quality of his/her work.
This paper is predominantly based on primary sources and reports
on garment production in Asia collated by the CleanClothesCampaign
(CCC) and the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations
(SOMO) in Amsterdam as well as interviews with staff of CCC and
SOMO. In addition, a questionnaire on the ethical policy of clothing
retailers towards clothing suppliers was sent to 11 clothing retailers
in the UK, although most firms failed to respond to the questionnaire.
The paper starts by describing the trade patterns in the international
garment industry. This sets the background for the subsequent analysis
of the human rights impact of transnational corporations (TNCs),
the main part of the paper. This analysis is followed by a brief
discussion of the indirect impact of TNCs on human rights, a discussion
of the retailers’ ethical policies towards their clothing suppliers
and a conclusion.
* Jêdrzej George Frynas is Senior Lecturer
in International Business at Coventry Business School, Coventry
University. He is the author of Oil in Nigeria - Conflict and Litigation
between Oil Companies and Village Communities (Hamburg/Muenster:
LIT) and articles in journals such as Third World Quarterly, African
Affairs and Review of African Political Economy. The author is very
grateful for the kind assistance rendered by CCC staff, especially
Ineke Zeldenrust, in the course of this research. Many thanks also
to Joris Oldenziel of SOMO and Martin Pepper of Littlewoods for
their kind assistance. Last but not least, the author would like
to thank the Coventry Business School for generous funding of this
research.
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