OVER 600K PHL GARMENTS WORKERS MAY LOSE JOBS ON COVID’S IMPACT–ILO

OVER 600,000 workers in the local garments industry are now at risk of losing their jobs as the Covid-19 pandemic reduces plant production and consumer demand worldwide.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) issued the statement on Thursday after it observed that domestic garment firms have reduced their exports by 40 percent due to temporary or permanent factor closures disruption on the supplies of their raw materials.

It noted that the Philippines together with China, India, and Sri Lanka registered the largest percentage decreases in garments exports.

“Total combined imports to the US, EU and Japan from 10 major apparel and footwear producing countries in Asia also fell significantly between January and June 2020, when compared to the same period in 2019,” ILO said in its “The supply chain ripple effect: How Covid-19 is affecting garment workers and factories in Asia and the Pacific” report.

Downward trajectory

ILO also warned that the “downward trajectory” for garment demand will continue up to 2022, leaving many of its employees vulnerable to mass displacement and poor working conditions.

“The research highlights that major buying countries’ imports from garmentexporting countries in Asia dropped by up to 70 percent in the first half of 2020,” ILO said.

The UN agency said the Asia and the Pacific region is particularly vulnerable to this trend since it is the source of 60 percent of the world’s total apparel exports.

It noted that 3.4 percent of the 65 million workers in the region are employed in the garment industry. More than half or 35 million of these workers are women.

Poor working conditions

Since the onset of the Covid- 19 crisis, ILO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific labor economist Christian Viegelahn said the garments workers suffered shorter working hours or were permanently displaced.

“The typical garment worker in the region lost out on at least two to four weeks of work and saw only three in five of her coworkers called back to the factory when it reopened,” Viegelahn said in a statement.

“Declines in earnings and delays in wage payments were also common among garment workers still employed in the second quarter of 2020,” he added.

Tripartite approach

In the Philippines, at least 4,000 workers in garments manufacturers in Cebu lost their jobs this year because of the pandemic.

To help these workers, ILO recommended that government conduc t tripar tite consultations so it could provide with the necessary “support for enterprises, as well as the extension of social protection for workers, especially women.”

It hopes this initiative will lead to “structural realignment” through new policies and technological innovation in the garment supply chains to make their operations more sustainable and provide better treatment to their workers.