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Background:
The revelation this year of child labour in India’s cotton fields and modern-day slavery in Taiwanese garment factories are the latest in a long series of scandals concerning the treatment of workers in fashion’s supply chain.
New abuses keep coming to light despite efforts by brands, manufacturers, activists and governments to set clear guidelines on how labour should be treated. Watchdog groups are trying new tactics to combat this problem, but they’re up against systemic forces that go far beyond fashion.
Sustainability editor Sarah Kent joins executive editor Brian Baskin and senior correspondent Sheena Butler-Young to discuss the problematic labour dynamics that form the foundations of the fashion system.
Key Insights:
- Persistent abuse in fashion’s supply chains is not merely about isolated incidents but reflects deep-rooted socio-economic challenges. In India’s cotton industry, for example, many farmworkers come from extremely marginalised and impoverished communities where exploitation is a norm rather than an exception. Families often work together under hazardous conditions, with little oversight or recourse. “So you’re not just dealing with an issue of exploitation that is coming from the [fashion] industry, you’re dealing with a culture that is ingrained in the way that community works – and that is a very difficult, complicated thing to try and manage, ” explains Kent.
- Transparency in supply chains remains a critical issue in the fashion industry. Despite decades of advocacy for better oversight, many brands still struggle to verify the origins of the cotton used in their products. The complexity of the global cotton supply chain – where materials pass through multiple layers of suppliers and traders – makes it extremely difficult to trace raw cotton back to its source. “The traders will have been getting the cotton from ginners who will have got raw cotton from … maybe hundreds of thousands of small family farms aggregated it, ginned it, sold it onto a trader who then sells it up through the supply chain. So by the time it even gets to a spinning factory, tracing it back to the farm where it came from is really, really difficult,” says Kent.
- In Taiwan’s textile industry, systemic issues such as excessive recruitment fees continue to burden migrant workers, yet change is stalling. Despite growing awareness and repeated calls for reform, manufacturers have little incentive to alter longstanding practices without coordinated industry action and regulatory intervention. As Kent notes, “Without other brands operating in Taiwan coming together and trying to do the same thing, the industry as a whole isn’t going to move.” And without regulatory shifts, manufacturers don’t have much incentive to change the way they operate to remove the burden of recruitment fees from workers. “If workers aren’t paying [the recruitment fees], then the manufacturers have to pay them.”
- Consumer trust in ethical claims is paramount for brands that position themselves as responsible and sustainable. However, when ethical certifications and claims become diluted by inconsistent practices and opaque supply chains, consumers quickly lose faith. This erosion of trust can lead to widespread apathy, undermining efforts to promote responsible consumption in the first place. “If consumers lose trust in what is meant to be a signifier of doing better, then you risk people not caring at all,” Kent warns. “No one’s going to pay more for a product that promises to be more responsible and more ethical when it’s when they don’t believe that it is.”
