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MORE than 600,000 workers in the local garment industry are now at risk of losing their jobs as the Covid-19 pandemic reduces plant production and consumer demand around the world.
The International Labor Organization (ILO) issued the statement on Thursday after noting that national apparel firms have reduced their exports by 40 percent due to temporary or permanent shutdowns of factors that disrupt the supply of their raw materials.
He noted that the Philippines, along with China, India and Sri Lanka, recorded the largest percentage declines in apparel exports.
“Total combined imports to the US, the EU and Japan from the top 10 apparel and footwear producing countries in Asia also declined significantly between January and June 2020, compared to the same period in 2019,” said the ILO in its “Supply Chain Domino Effect: How Covid-19 Is Affecting Garment Workers and Factories in Asia and the Pacific” report.
Downward trajectory
The ILO also warned that the “downward trajectory” of demand for clothing will continue through 2022, leaving many of its employees vulnerable to mass displacement and poor working conditions.
“The research highlights that imports by major purchasing countries from Asian apparel exporting countries fell by as much as 70 percent in the first half of 2020,” the ILO said.
The UN agency said the Asia-Pacific region is particularly vulnerable to this trend, as it is the source of 60 percent of the world’s total clothing exports.
He noted that 3.4 percent of the 65 million workers in the region are employed in the garment industry. More than half or 35 million of these workers are women.
Poor working conditions
Since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, the labor economist at the ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Christian Viegelahn, said that garment workers suffered fewer hours of work or were permanently displaced.
“The typical garment worker in the region lost at least two to four weeks of work and saw that only three out of five of her co-workers called the factory again when it reopened,” Viegelahn said in a statement.
“Decreases in earnings and delays in paying wages were also common among garment workers who were still employed in the second quarter of 2020,” he added.
Tripartite approach
In the Philippines, at least 4,000 workers from garment manufacturers in Cebu lost their jobs this year due to the pandemic.
To help these workers, the ILO recommended that the government carry out tripartite consultations in order to provide “support to companies, as well as the extension of social protection for workers, especially women.”
It hopes that this initiative will lead to a “structural realignment” through new policies and technological innovation in the garment supply chains to make its operations more sustainable and provide a better treatment to its workers.
