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March 01, 2019

Report: 'Girl Power' Charity Tees Made By Impoverished Workers At Factory Where Labor Abuses Are Alleged

For promotional products firms, the sad story provides another cautionary tale on the importance of responsible sourcing.

By  Christopher Ruvo

Emblazoned with the bold imprint “Girl Power,” the message T-shirts were intended to be about empowering women. They even raised money for charity.

However, according to an investigation by The Guardian, there was a tragic underlying irony: The shirts were produced at a Bangladeshi factory where labor abuses have allegedly occurred and where scores of poverty-stricken workers – overwhelmingly women -- were reportedly fired for protesting their unlivable low wages.

“The Guardian has established that the garments were made by Bangladeshi firm Dird Composite Textiles, where some workers earn as little as 42p an hour and complain of harassment,” the British newspaper reported. “In one case, a female employee was beaten on the orders of the management and threatened with murder.”

According to the investigation, workers at the factory took to striking in January to protest their wages. More than 100 were fired, putting them among the 7,500-plus employees at 27 Bangladesh factories that have been axed in recent months for pushing back against a newly imposed minimum wage that critics say is far too low. The pay amounts to about $95 per month – short of living wage estimates and half of what workers have demanded.

F= is the brand that had been selling the shirts online for about $37, with more than $13 from each shirt sale donated to Worldreader, a charity that supplies digital books to children caught in poverty in Africa. In the wake of the revelations, F= told The Guardian it would stop selling the tees, while Worldreader said it would not accept additional donations “until the situation is resolved.”

The Guardian report is another black eye for Stanley/Stella, a Belgium-based brand that last month found itself in hot water when a separate investigation by the same newspaper revealed Stanely/Stella had similarly-themed female empowerment shirts produced for pop group The Spice Girls at a Bangladesh factory where laborers, mostly women, worked in inhumane conditions while being paid what amounted to a slave wage.

A portion of the proceeds of sales from the approximately $25 shirts, which were printed with #IWannaBeASpiceGirl,” were to go to Comic Relief’s fund to champion “equality for women.”

Following the latest investigation on the “Girl Power” T-shirts, a Stanley/Stella spokesperson told The Guardian: “In any country facing fast economic development, some progress is still to be made with regards to social compliance. Wages are still too low, even after a 40%-50% increase last December, and overtime is often needed to support the normal living wage. Unfortunately, some gender discrimination can also be found. However, by producing garments in Bangladesh, responsible European brands – like Stanley/Stella – can drive a positive change.”

Attention on alleged abuses at overseas apparel factories appears to be intensifying. In addition to The Guardian investigations, the Associated Press reported in December that a Chinese apparel manufacturer was pulling workers from an interment camp that detained primarily Muslim ethnic minorities in northwestern China. The scandal impacted promo industry supplier Badger Sportswear (asi/37876). Meanwhile, the nonprofit Human Rights Watch has published multiple recent studies, including this one and this one, that allege abuse at apparel factories.

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