Hundreds of garment workers in Bangladesh and Vietnam toil for Australian fashion brands. These brands care more for the clothes than the people making them. Systemic exploitation of workers has been enabled by Australian companies like Kmart, Target, Big W and Cotton On whose buying practices compel factory operators to reduce cost of production.

These buying practices include fierce price negotiation, short-term contracts with factories, and reducing delivery times at one end while imposing fines for not meeting those squeezed deadlines. Buyers for instance insist on the installation of automatic fire extinguishers for rooms where finished clothing is stored, but do not require the same for the sewing floors where hot machines can also ignite.

Brands are supposed to be responsible for making credible commitments to ensure the payment of living wages to workers making their clothes. The global garment industry is infamous for its labour sweatshops in developing countries.

Workers are grossly underpaid and work under despicable conditions – producing for a global apparel market valued at around three trillion dollars. They get paid less than the living wage – the wage required by a worker to meet the basic needs of a family unit of four (two adults, two children) in order to maintain a decent quality of life.