Issues of false promises and unethical working in overseas garment factories are growing and there cannot be anything more worrying than this for the industry.
Lately, 44 Nepali women have been reported to be tricked into underpaid overwork within the secured boundaries of a garment unit in northeastern China.
Yesterday, Apparel Resources covered how two young men of Tirupur were promised a job in a garment factory in Thailand but are forcibly working as bonded labourers in a hotel (https://bit.ly/2JcGuNl)
As per the report of Chetnath Acharya of myrepublica.nagariknetwork.com, these Nepali women workers were taken on tourist visas to Dandong Garment Factory in Liaoning province by Compass Manpower company, Kathmandu. These workers were promised of jobs with a monthly salary of US $ 300, were guaranteed eight-hours a day and a weekly day off.
However, reality is far from the truth!
The women have complained that they were being forced to work 11 hours a day with just two days off in a month. Add to it, they were getting very low salary and were forced to work and live in a miserable condition.
What’s worse is that the factory has confined these women to the four walls of the factory under stringent rules.
Meanwhile, the factory has informed the Nepali embassy that it was never their intention to make the Nepali women work under such harsh conditions. Rather, it has accused the manpower company of any fraud that has taken place.
“The officials from the garment factory have claimed that the manpower company had asked them to not adhere to the contract,” Republica quoted an embassy official.
These women are now sheltering illegally at the Nepali embassy as their one-month visas have expired.
Irrespective of the claims being refuted by the garment factory, such incidents have raised a question about compliance in Chinese apparel factories.
