Who foots the bill? Support homeworkers making your shoes

Monday, 03 March 2008 00:00

"Who Foots the Bill?" is a campaign run jointly by Labour Behind the Label and Homeworkers Worldwide, to persuade companies including Clarks and Stylo to acknowledge the presence of homeworkers in their supply chains, ensuring that they work in decent conditions and have access to their rights.

Take action >>

During a mapping project carried out between 2000 and 2006, Homeworkers Worldwide identified homeworkers in countries across the world working on the production of leather shoes, often working to stitch the top of the shoe, the 'upper'. These workers, hidden at the bottom of increasingly complex supply chains, are facing poor working conditions and low pay while producing shoes for some of Britain's more well known high street stores. This 'invisible' workforce of mainly women workers is a vital part of the footwear production chain, but is rarely covered by company codes of conduct and often unrecognised by government agencies and regulation. As women, their work is often undervalued and unrecognised as 'real' work by either the companies they produce for or the families their income helps to sustain.

src="http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/images/stories/breakdown.png" alt="Homeworkers take home just 50p" align="right" />Homeworkers are generally paid on piece rates which equate to very low rates of pay: for a pair of shoes which retails at £75, a homeworker in Bulgaria is usually paid 50p. More complicated models can mean her hourly rate drops. Homeworkers say that, in order to make a living, a family of four needs £150 (or 400 pairs of shoes) per month and, that they would need to work for 66 hours per week to achieve this. Low pay is only one of many problems faced by homeworkers: they are only paid when there is work to be done and are not usually paid for work that is not deemed to be of high enough quality; they pay their own overhead costs - heating, lighting and often equipment - and rarely receive any social security benefits such as sick pay, maternity leave or pensions. Long hours and lack of health and safety checks lead to further problems: homeworkers describe backache and pain in their hands and fingers and the negative impact on their health of toxic glues.

Lack of security at work means they feel unable to refuse work, and urgent deadlines often mean working non-stop for days. This is compounded by the fact that most women have to fit their homework around other responsibilites. In Portugal, homeworkers felt under constant pressure to accept work; according to one homeworker, Maria, "we can't refuse a box, he doesn't like that. It's better to accept everything he brings because otherwise he might give the work to someone else. He often brings extra work for the weekend. Sometimes it makes us want to cry: you have to sew shoes, iron, wash, make the meals. There comes a point when we can't take any more."

The complexity of supply chains also affects homeworkers' bargaining power. Work is generally given to workers by a local intermediary, who negotiates the rates of pay, quality and amount of work to be done. The intermediary is in contact with a supplier, who may be part of a longer chain, involving a number of subsidiaries or subcontractors. Homeworkers are often aware only of the part of the chain that immediately affects them, and will only know what company they are producing for if there are clues such as labels on the shoes. They do not know retail prices of shoes, making it difficult to negotiate better pay and conditions, and are isolated from other workers, making organising difficult.

Homeworkers report degrading and exploitative treatment from intermediaries. Rozalina from Bulgaria said "One of the problems for homeworkers, and a constant humiliation, is that nowhere are they mentioned by their name. The subcontractors know them only by a number. Homeworkers are the most invisible."

Despite the difficulties they face, homeworkers in many countries have started organising to press for change. Through setting up their own democratic, independent organisations they have a collective voice and can fight for their demands. These include regular work and a living wage; recognition for homeworkers as workers and for their rights; recognition of their right to organise and of their organisation; basic social protection, particularly for health, maternity and old age and equal treatment for homeworkers with other workers.

Working conditions are closely linked to decisions made further up supply chains as companies engage in a 'race to the bottom' to reduce costs, and put pressure on suppliers to provide goods at ever lower prices. However, although some companies are starting to assume at least some responsibility for working conditions in factories along their supply chain, few even acknowledge the presence of homeworkers in their supply chains.