How Retail Giants Are Exploiting Labour Force

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It is becoming more and more important that some kind of universal guidelines for labour is put into place on a worldwide basis. As we agree that world over, economies are thriving on the effort of unskilled and skilled labour.


Cases of exploitation are coming forward amongst labour from every nook and corner. The pandemic, in a way, has helped unearth the ugly truth behind top brands.  In focus this month is Amazon again, leave alone the popular brand H&M.

Horror stories amongst women workers has been surfacing in the Indian manufacturing facility for children’s clothes for H&M. Multiple women at Natchi Apparels have reported abuse weeks after 21-year-old worker was allegedly killed by her supervisor.

Mostly Dalit women that work in the factory in Tamil Nadu have been victimized and alleged sexual assault.  After a 21 year old woman was mysteriously found murdered in the nearby field of her house, after having not returned back from work, many women have come forward using this as an ideal pretext to express their grievances.

Since the killing, 25 women have made allegations to the Tamil Nadu Textile and Common Labour Union (TTCU) of sexual assault, harassment and verbal abuse by male supervisors and managers at Natchi Apparels, owned by one of India’s largest garment manufacturers, Eastman Exports.

Most women expressed working conditions of patriarchy. Apart from cultural abuse, the women confirmed sexual abuse mostly in the night shifts. The pressure to make as many as 1000 garments daily has been reported as unnatural and unfair.

Testimonies and audio recorded by unions describe similar allegations of sexual and verbal abuse, and a culture of fear that prevented women from officially reporting incidents.

Amazon has come into the scanner for apparently firing outspoken workers. The two employees are reportedly, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa who worked at Amazon offices in Seattle. Both were fired for publicly criticizing the company for pushing it to do more to reduce its impact on climate change and to better protect warehouse workers from the coronavirus.

According to Amazon, they had to do so, because the employees were violating internal communication rules set down by the company. Amazon's treatment of workers has been in the spotlight recently. Votes are currently being counted to determine whether workers at an Alabama warehouse want to join a union. Organizers there want Amazon to pay workers more, give them more break time and to be treated with respect.

Cunningham and Costa, who were user-experience designers at Amazon, were the two most prominent voices among a group of workers who wanted the company, which has a giant carbon footprint, to take more steps to combat climate change and to stop doing business with oil and gas companies.

Condition of working staff has been extremely sad and exploitative even before the Covid-19 based lockdown happened. 

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