Swedish fast-fashion brand H&M is struggling to meet its commitment of ensuring fair wages to the garment workers who supply their clothes.
Reportedly, when 62 people from 6 different H&M supplier factories across Turkey, Cambodia, India and Bulgaria were interviewed, it became clear that the workers were not receiving fair wages.
Additionally, these workers have been working for longer hours to make their ends meet.
According to Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), H&M had made a commitment in 2013 that it will ensure all the workers of its supplier factories a decent living wage by the year 2018. However, there has not been much improvement in last 5 years.
H&M has strongly disagreed with the accusations made by CCC and said that it has succeeded in providing fair living wages to over 9,00,000 workers across nearly 600 factories.
An H&M official also said that there cannot be a universal living wage, and that wages should be properly defined and set by negotiations between owners and workers.
Meanwhile, CCC in its report said that the living wage of workers was less than half of the estimated amount in H&M’s supplier factories in Cambodia – dropping further below in India and Turkey.
