Following the disastrous earthquake in Turkey in February of last year, factories and brands were accused of abandoning workers by the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), an international organisation that works to protect garment workers.
In their recently published report, The impact of the earthquake on textile and garment workers, they said, “As most of them were not paid in full after the earthquake, workers had to return to work out of financial hardship, without safe accommodation and before the factories they worked in had undergone structural safety inspections.”
These findings are based on a survey of 130 workers from the earthquake-impacted cities of Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş, Malatya and Adıyaman, which was conducted between August and September 2023. These workers have faced issues like job insecurity, low wages and verbal harassment. Several of these problems even existed before the earthquake. Several workers have not received wages and many of them have reported that after the earthquake there was no inspection of the factories and their structural safety. Those who were unable to return to work lost their entitlement to severance pay in some cases.
The study confirms and expands on the findings of an earlier survey conducted in August by the Middle East Technical University in Istanbul. The new report echoed the CCC’s March 2023 call for brand manufacturers to ensure that workers in their supply chains are safe and their rights are respected.
Bego Demir from CCC Turkey and one of the authors of the report stated, “The February 2023 earthquake clearly shows that workers’ welfare is not protected by existing global agreements and compromises. New agreements and solutions are needed that are specifically tailored to crises like an earthquake. The Pay Your Workers agreement is one such option.”
