Extreme heat puts garment factory workers at risk, study shows

VF

08/12/2024 23:01

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      Heat affects workers in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Pakistan
    

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      Multinational retailers and brands must find fix
    

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      New EU regulations impose legal liability on firms
    

  
    By Helen Reid
       LONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Workers in some of the world's
biggest garment manufacturing hubs in Bangladesh, Vietnam, and
Pakistan are increasingly exposed to extreme heat as climate
change pushes temperatures up, a report found on Sunday, a
problem multinational retailers and brands will have to help
address.
    New European Union regulations make retailers selling in the
bloc, like Inditex, H&M and Nike, legally liable for conditions
at their suppliers, putting pressure on them to help fund
improvements to cool factories they source from.
    In Dhaka, Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Phnom Penh and Karachi,
the number of days with "wet-bulb" temperatures - a measurement
that accounts for air temperature as well as humidity - above
30.5 degrees Celsius jumped by 42% in 2020-2024 compared to
2005-2009, researchers at Cornell University's Global Labor
Institute found.
    Above that threshold, the International Labor Organisation
recommends as much rest as work in any given hour to maintain
safe core body temperature levels.
    The report identified only three retailers - Nike, Levi's,
and VF Corp - which specifically include protocols to protect
workers from heat exhaustion in their supplier codes of conduct.
    
    COMPANIES WARNED  
    "We've been talking to brands for ages now about this issue,
and they're only now starting to turn their attention to it,"
Jason Judd, executive director at Cornell University's Global
Labor Institute, told Reuters.
    "If a brand or retailer knows that temperatures in a
production area are excessively high or doing damage to worker
health, then they're obligated under this new set of rules to do
something about it," he added.
    The EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive came
into force in July and will start applying to large companies
from mid-2027.
    Fixes to cool factories could include better ventilation and
water evaporative cooling systems, instead of energy-intensive
and expensive air conditioning that would increase
manufacturers' carbon emissions. 
    Some factory owners would likely be willing to make such
investments themselves, given how heat stress significantly
impacts productivity, Judd said, but the EU rules highlight
brands' responsibility to address the issue too.
    The report also urged retailers and brands to invest in
higher wages and health protections so that workers can manage
the risk of missing work days due to heatwaves. 
    Extreme heat and flooding could erase $65 billion in apparel
export earnings from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Vietnam
by 2030, research from asset manager Schroders and the Global
Labor Institute found last year.

 (Reporting by Helen Reid; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)
 ((Helen.Reid@thomsonreuters.com; +44 7584 155 200 ;))