M, 23, started working in one of the biggest
jeans-making factory in Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. After the probation
period, her supervisor recommended her for a full-time job. But just days later, near the end of the
shift, her boss called her to his office, closed the blinds, and asked her to
shut the door. When she refused, he said he expected gratitude. She ran out as
he tried to assault her, went to HR and complained. The same evening she was
fired.
*****
Lesotho, a South African country, exports 90 million
jeans a year, compared to 10 billion by Bangladesh. But Lesotho specializes in
Denim. It makes more than 26 million denim pairs a year for Levi’s. The garment
industry contributes to 25% of Lesotho’s GDP.
The jeans-making factories never hired enough full-timers
despite the massive orders from US and Europe. Instead, every morning, a long
queue of women waited at the gates. A male supervisor chose a dozen. They were
called “dailies”, unemployed cutters and machinists, visiting factory gates
looking for daily wages.
During the working day, the women endured sexual
harassment, groping, abuse from their male supervisors. Forcing women to have
sex was the lunchtime recreation for male bosses. Women with hungry babies agreed
to the assault to keep their jobs. Others were raped on the factory premises.
Junior managers’ sex was watched by senior managers as “porn” on the factory CCTV.
Bosses regularly demanded unprotected sex before releasing the salaries. Some
women contracted HIV as a result.
*****
The factories are owned by Nien Hsing, a giant Taiwanese
corporation. It supplies jeans to Levi Strauss, Wrangler, The Children’s Place
and other retailers. Major brands choose such intermediaries to keep themselves
at arm’s length. Neither the sex predators nor the victims are employees of
Levi’s or Wrangler. They are employed by a company in Taiwan, where labour laws
and human rights are not as strict as in the USA.
The jobs at jeans factories require low skill and are
paid poorly. Dailies are paid $7 a day. With low wages, destitute women pick up
those jobs. They tolerate repeated harassment and sexual assaults to feed their
malnourished kids.
Levi Strauss & Co. carried social audits and
factory inspections as part of their operating procedures. However, their
representatives talked to the women in groups, and in front of their
supervisors. The inspections happened under conditions where the women could
never speak out.
*****
In 2018, Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) started
investigating what was going on in the Lesotho denim factories. They conducted
anonymous off-site interviews. All women said the main problem was the
supervisors. Each one had a sordid story to tell. The 22-page WRC report giving
the shocking findings demanded that binding, enforceable agreements be signed
to root out GBVH (Gender Based violence and harassment).
Management of Nien Hsing initially denied the
allegations, but the scale and evidence of the sexual exploitation was too
widespread. Levi’s was forced to acknowledge this was happening in its supply
chain. On 15 August 2019, Levi’s issued a statement accepting this to be a
global, industry-wide issue, and promising to improve the lives of the workers.
*****
Lesotho is not an outlier. Garment workers in
Bangladesh, India, Brazil, Mexico, Sri Lanka, China, Turkey, and Vietnam have
reported being assaulted, stalked, groped, harassed and raped in factories
producing jeans for international brands. A study last year found 80% of
garment workers in Bangladesh have experienced or witnessed sexual violence and
harassment at work.
*****
At least one pair of jeans each of us has worn was stitched
by a woman sexually assaulted or harassed in the same factory.
(Tomorrow: Jeans industry during the pandemic).
Ravi