Published
Feb 16, 2016
Download
Download the article
Print
Text size

Report says M&S’s living wage programme is misleading

Published
Feb 16, 2016

British department store Marks & Spencer committed itself to supporting the payment of living wages to workers from south Asian countries in 2010, but according to a recent report by Labour Behind the Label, workers at M&S suppliers are still paid insufficiently.


Photo: AFP


“In Sri Lanka workers interviewed were paid an average of £3.23 a day, including overtime (a ten hour day). In months with high production quotas workers would be made to work 100 hours overtime a month, twelve hour days, 40 hours over the legal limit,” states the report ‘Do we buy it?’, which led research across three south Asian countries to find out if M&S’s living wage scheme had been effective.

Workers in India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were found to be living in abject poverty, sharing slum housing and often working illegal levels of overtime. In India workers reported food and education expenses were difficult to meet on their wages, with one worker stating: “Our income is not enough. We don’t buy eggs, meat, fish or fruits because of high costs”.

According to Labour Behind the Label, the scheme by Marks and Spencer relied on trying to improve ‘efficiency’ at a factory level, instead on focusing on increasing wages, and failed to engage with unions and act collaboratively.

M&S made its commitment to paying a fair living wage a key priority for its Plan A from 2015 onwards, and assured that average wages at its supplier factories in Bangladesh are 60% above the current minimum wage.   

Copyright © 2024 FashionNetwork.com All rights reserved.