Sharp Drop In Demand, Interruption Of Raw Materials, Unemployment Of Textile Workers In Asia

The International Labor Organization says the number of thousands of garment workers who have been laid off and temporarily lost their jobs in the Asia Pacific region has increased dramatically as orders have fallen.

The Asia Pacific region has the largest number of textile workers in the world. In 2019, the region employed about 65 million textile workers, accounting for 75% of the global industrial workforce.

The International Labor Organization (ILO) has studied the top 10 countries in the region, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. Workers and enterprises in the whole supply chain have been affected by the sharp decline in retail sales in major export markets.

As of September, nearly half of the production activities in the textile supply chain depend on the import demand of the main partner countries. Over the past few years, demand has fallen sharply and raw material supplies have been disrupted, and imports from Asia's major textile and apparel customers have fallen by 70% by the first half of 2020.

Despite the positive response of governments to the crisis, studies by the international labor organization show that thousands of factories in the region are still closed temporarily or permanently. There has been a sharp increase in the number of workers who have temporarily left work and been laid off. Most of the factories that can resume operation have also been laid off to a certain extent.

Christian viegelahn, a labor economist for the Asia Pacific region of the international labor organization, said the average working time of women textile workers in the region is at least two to four weeks. When the factory reopened, only three fifths of the staff were called back to work. Among the garment workers still employed in the second quarter, falling incomes and wage delays became common.

Covid-19 also has a strong impact on women, who are the absolute mainstay of the industry. According to the International Labour Organization, this has exacerbated the inherent inequalities in income, workload, occupational segregation and the division of work in unpaid care.

In countries where dialogue mechanisms have been established, social dialogue is useful in enhancing response to crises. It called for more inclusive and substantive social dialogue at all national and sectoral levels in the region.

The study also recommends continuing support for businesses and extending social security coverage to workers, especially women.

Chihiro Asakawa, head of the ILO's Asia Pacific region, stressed that governments, workers, employers and other stakeholders in the industry must work together to find solutions to these situations. This is unprecedented and more concentrated in the textile industry.