COVID-19's devastating impacts on garment factory workers and four ways to take action

In research piece "The supply chain ripple effect: How COVID-19 is affecting garment workers and factories in Asia and the Pacific" published in October 2020, the International Labour Organization (ILO) unpacks how COVID-19 devastated the global garment industry in the first half of 2020 and how its impacts have hit garment factory workers in Asia Pacific (the region where 75% of garments are produced) the hardest.

In March 2020, global brands and retailers reacted to pandemic-mandated store closures by suddenly cancelling orders with their supplier factories. Many multinationals refused to pay their suppliers for products already produced to meet those cancelled orders. These costly cancellations prompted garment factories to lay off their factory workers en masse. This loss of income rendered millions of garment workers and their families vulnerable to hunger and other dire issues and it acutely impacted women workers in particular, who make up the bulk of the garment industry workforce.

As some factories reopened in the second half of 2020, they took COVID-19 safety precautions (but some applied these haphazardly) and reduced and delayed the paychecks of the fraction of garment workers they could afford to hire back. Only about 60% of workers were called back to the factory.

These COVID-19-caused and/or -amplified issues severely harming factory workers in apparel supply chains will continue (potentially even after the pandemic) unless those who have the power to take signification action actually do so. ILO shares four ways apparel brands, retailers, and governments should meaningfully address the devastating current and long-term impacts of COVID-19 on garment factory workers, which are: (1) stimulating the economy and employment, (2) supporting enterprises, jobs, and incomes, (3) protecting workers in the workplace, and (4) relying on social dialogue for solutions.