Thursday, October 25, 2012

What's a life worth?

 How much is a human life worth? Well, if you are a Pakistani worker - $1,930.

Six weeks ago, at least 259 workers died in a fire in the Pakistani port city of Karachi at a factory that produced jeans for German discount textile and clothing retailer Kik. The disaster created unfavorable headlines for the Western company because it highlighted the poor working conditions of many who create the inexpensive products sold by discounter firms.  Kik plans to pay damages totalling $500,000 (€383,700) to the families of more than 250 workers who died in a fire at a Pakistan factory used to produce its clothing.

"That's not that much at all," says Nasir Mansoor of Pakistan's National Trade Union Federation "Furthermore, we don't know when and how the payment is supposed to come through."
Close to 1,500 men and women worked at Ali Enterprises, most of them without contracts. "We never got anything in writing," says one young woman, who worked doing unskilled support work in the sewing unit. "This is our problem now -- hardly anyone can demonstrate that they actually worked for Ali Enterprises." The lack of a paper trail makes it especially hard to establish the workers' claims. "The government of the province told us that we should show our papers in order to get money. Which papers are they talking about? We never got any."

A report made available long ago stating that the electrical systems in the plant were not up to safety standards and emergency exits were poorly illuminated. The cause of the fire hasn't yet been identified, but it is clear that the factory wasn't up to code. Bars covered the windows, and escape routes were blocked off, preventing people from getting out when disaster struck. There was also no explanation for dangerous waste water used to acid wash clothing that was being flushed into the public sewage system.Employees were paid for each pair of jeans that they produced. They worked on an assembly line, with each worker completing the same task for as many as 14 hours per day.  Hardly any of them made more than 7,000 rupies, or €60, in a month.

Kik has become highly successful, with annual revenues of more than a billion euros and some 3,000 stores in eight countries.  In the past, the company has sold t-shirts for as little as €1.99. But critics have noted that the cheap prices on Kik's products come at the expense of poorly paid factory workers in countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan. In 2009, the company came under fire following allegations that children under 14 had been working in a plant that produced for Kik in Bangladesh.

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