Fair Wear Foundation

Anti-harassment committee and violence prevention system in export-oriented garment factories

Anti-harassment in export-oriented garment factories. Photo: Fair Wear Foundation

Sixty percent of employees in the export-oriented garment industry in South India and Bangladesh are women, and more than half have experienced some form of workplace abuse. Both countries have legal protections in place against workplace violence, but commitment and resources for implementation are often lacking.

This project will improve working conditions and reduce workplace violence in export-oriented garment factories. The project targets three production cities in Bangladesh and India for enhanced labour monitoring and remediation systems, with a view to up-scaling best practices to other countries and industries. The project will build and improve relationships between workers, export-oriented garment factories, and the European companies that outsource to them.

The Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) and its European member companies (many of whom source their garments in Bangladesh and India) will leverage their influence to support factories in reducing workplace violence. Outsourcing companies will be informed of the nature and frequency of violence in their supply chains, and will be given information on how to address these issues in factory negotiations. In Bangladesh and India, the project will engage 25,000 employees and managers at 50 factories to build systems to address workplace violence. The project also includes a training component to provide workers with tools to establish anti-harassment committees.