Fashion And The Exploitation Of Workers

EDM number 49 in 1996-97, proposed by Alan Meale on 23/10/1996.

That this House is alarmed that 160 countries are producing fashion goods for export into the markets of only about 30 countries; notes that most of the 30 million jobs in the fashion industry worldide are low paid, insecure and often based on export processing zones where workers' rights are often suppressed, wages frequently below subsistence levels and overtime is increasingly obligatory and often unpaid; is horrified that millions of children are employed in this sector where management by terror is the norm; and calls upon Her Majesty's Government to meet representatives of the International Textile, Garment and Leather Workers Federation to develop with them policies against illegal child labour and to harness the globalisation process to ensure that all workers and their families share in the benefits of the present liberalisation of world trade.

This motion has been signed by a total of 65 MPs.