In the context when South Asian economies are struggling to create adequate jobs, two sectors, namely tea and garment industries, have been playing a crucial role in providing significant employment opportunities to the vast labour force in South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The tea plantation and garment sectors in South Asia share some common features that have relevance in discussing minimum wage. First, both sectors employ a large proportion of women workers and workers in these sectors come largely from socially disadvantaged groups. Second, both sectors are part of national and global value chains, where significantly larger proportions of profits are made at the retail end. This way, global market situations impact the end values, which in turn affect the economics of manufacture in the local country. Third, large income inequalities coexist with high rates of inflation across South Asia. Collectively, these factors adversely impact bargaining power and wages of workers.[1]

There is a lack of decent employment in tea and garment sectors in the region. For instance, the minimum wages in the tea sector in West Bengal and Assam are not implemented, and interim wages are often enacted, which are insufficient for workers to maintain a decent standard of living. Similarly, the minimum wages for tea plantation workers in other countries, including Nepal (NPR 500 per day) and Bangladesh (BDT 170 per day), are inadequate and do not increase in line with the inflation rate. Likewise, the minimum wage in the garment sector in Bangladesh, set at BDT 8,000, is also too low. Workers frequently have to struggle and protest for wage increases, and even when minimum wage adjustments are made, they often fall short of providing a decent living.

Amidst this background, LDC Watch/South Asia Alliance for Poverty Eradication (SAAPE) is organizing a panel discussion “Battling inequality in tea and garment value chains: Advancing beyond minimum wage to living wage” to discuss the wage and social protection issues in the two sectors at the World Social Forum on 17 February 2024. The panel discussion will further explore how workers can be socially and economically protected by going beyond the minimum wage and applying the living wage concept in the production and distribution chains, especially in the post-pandemic world. Importantly, we will hear from frontline CSOs on wage challenges, and how living wage would make a difference.

Speakers:

1. Babu Mathew (TBC), Keynote Speaker

2. Aabida Ali, Pakistan

3. Khalid Mahmood, LEF, Paksitan

4. Chamila Tusari, Sri Lanka

5. Sarinee Achavanuntakul, SalForest, Thailand

6. Mohiuddin Ahmed (TBC), Bangladesh

7. Garment Trade Workers Union, Bangladesh (TBC)

8. Sushovan Dhar, India

9. Santa Kumar Rai, Nepal

and more.

[1] Mani, M. (2023). Minimum wages in tea plantation and ready-made garments sectors in South Asian Countries: A simple reader for workers and activists. Kathmandu: SAAPE. Retrieved from https://saape.org/files/Regional%20Paper_Minimum%20Wage_SA.pdf

Beyond minimum wage to living wage: Battling inequality in tea and garment sectors in South Asia

Civil society statement

19 February 2024

We, civil society representatives and labour rights activists from various South Asian nations convened at the World Social Forum 2024 in Kathmandu, Nepal with our collective focus on the challenges faced by workers in the tea and ready-made garment sectors, that have been significant contributors to the South Asian economy. While acknowledging the significance of minimum wage as a pivotal public policy tool safeguarding labour right, we denounce the meagre minimum wage, which falls significantly below the market rate and proves nearly ineffective in ensuring decent living condition to workers. Arbitrarily set minimum wages, disconnected from the actual cost of living and oblivious to the overlapping crises disproportionately affecting workers, are unacceptable. Therefore, we assert our demand for a living wage, meticulously calculated to reflect the real cost of maintaining a nominal standard of living, that workers truly deserve.

The present state of affairs demands a radical departure from a system where workers bear the brunt of sacrifices for the sake of industry profitability. Rather, they deserve a fair and equitable share of the industry’s returns. Brands must shoulder their fair share of responsibility by ensuring fair wages, and regulations should be enacted to enforce this commitment, transcending non-binding voluntary codes or corporate social responsibility initiatives.

We express our deep concern that workers remain unrecognized and lack written contracts, thereby being denied access to social security entitlements. In addition, workers, despite contributing for generations, a phenomenon especially prevalent in the plantation sector, find themselves devoid of any resources. We vehemently denounce any mechanism that perpetuates such indentured labour conditions. We resolutely call for the secured land and homestead rights for tea plantation workers and smallholder farmers.

We further denounce the insufficient protection of women’s reproductive and maternity rights, despite their significant involvement in the tea and garment industry. We urge increased state engagement to reform current laws and policies, ensuring equal pay for equal work, women’s access to resources, protecting them against gender-based violence, and emphasizing the pressing need to recognize and prioritize care work.

We take serious note of the outgrower and other recent business models that are promoted by the companies, which strips the workers of their entitlements and push them towards precarity. Amidst such ongoing informalization of the industry, we recognize the need for renewed efforts for organizing workers at the national, regional, and global levels to build effective alliances for reclaiming what rightfully belongs to the workers. The rights of workers’ freedom of association and collective bargaining are to be ensured. Long live the united workers’ struggle! Workers united cannot be defeated!

SAAPE on X: "While workers face declining real wages, civil societies in #SouthAsia gathered @WSF2024nepal to advocate for a #livingwage, social security, women's reproductive rights & renewed effort to address issues associated w informalization in tea plantation & RMG sectors. Statement 👇 https://t.co/uJSqILShpt" / X (twitter.com)