Focus on working conditions in EPZ companies

An estimated 36,000 people toil under harsh conditions in Kenya's Export Processing Zones (EPZs), according to Kenyan NGOs. Hired on short-term contracts, the workers strive to fulfill production quotas, often without maternity or sick leave. They face stiff penalties for mistakes, the NGOs said. The EPZs were set up by the Kenya government as industrial parks to facilitate the mass production of export goods, mainly textiles for the international market. The NGOs say workers there put in long hours just to earn enough to get by and nobody can leave the workplace before fulfilling their quotas. The plight of these workers prompted a campaign launched by the NGOs on 17 February. Organisers of the campaign claimed the EPZs were protected by government's policies favouring foreign investors, thereby enabling factory owners to violate labour laws. Jennifer Miano, the executive director of the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC), the organisation leading the campaign, said the major problem with EPZs was the lack of respect for and observance of basic human rights, in contradiction to international law, to which Kenya is a signatory. "The first thing is to respect the rights of humans who are the primary instruments driving the global economy," Miano recently told a crowd of EPZ workers during a rally in capital, Nairobi. "Kenya is a signatory to international human rights laws that recognise the right of all to work and decent income. The income should help people achieve their needs, not increase poverty," she added. The commission is one of the NGOs that form the Civil Society Alliance on Labour Campaign in Kenya. This initiative, apart from seeking changes in national employment policies, is mobilising workers to fight against poor working conditions and lobbying companies to respect workers' rights, according to Miano. But Jonathan Chifallu, the public relations executive at the EPZ Authority, the government body which regulates the sector, disagreed with the KHRC. EPZs, he said, were not exempt from labour laws, despite the country's policies towards foreign investors being generally favourable. "The policy is very clear. Our labour laws have to be followed to the letter," Chifallu told IRIN on Monday. HARSH WORKING CONDITIONS Inside a typical EPZ garment factory, workers are placed in several categories. These comprise sewing machine operators who do the actual stitching of seams in clothing; helpers who sort through the clothing and remove loose threads; quality controllers, who inspect the end product for defects; and supervisors. The machine operators, helpers and quality controllers work while sitting or standing for between eight and 12 hours daily, with only a 45-minute break in between, in order to fulfil the quota set by the supervisors. Their daily pay is between US $1.90 and $2.20, but a percentage is deducted ostensibly for social security or hospital insurance contributions, which rarely benefit them, the workers complain. Often, the machines get hot and, without ventilation, the workers are constantly in a state of extreme discomfort. The story is similar in the food industry, where few workers are enrolled in health schemes, and have hardly any savings, according to the workers. They cite cases in which workers, especially pregnant women, have collapsed or fallen seriously ill after long hours of hard work. Susan, who has worked for two years in an EPZ factory in the Athi River area on the outskirts of Nairobi, said her employer had never remitted any of the deductions from her pay to her social security and hospital insurance accounts. "It is not work. It is as if we are in prison," she told IRIN. "When you go to [a government] hospital, you are turned away because NHIF [National Hospital Insurance Fund] does not receive our payments," she added. Janet, a helper in a garment factory in Nairobi's Ruaraka area, said she sometimes works around the clock, with only short breaks. "If you don't meet your target, you will be detained inside the factory even if it means working until morning," she said. ALLEGATIONS OF HARASSMENT Other female EPZ workers tell even more depressing tales of verbal and sexual violence they suffer at the hands of their "masters", including rape and beatings. "They order you to go upstairs [to supervisors' offices]. If you refuse, you are fired. If you accept, you could be raped, and the next day the story will be told to all your colleagues," says Grace, a machine operator at an EPZ factory in Ruaraka. Sexual harassment in the workplace has raised tensions, leading to high divorce rates between spouses working for the same employers. The mistreatment in the workplace also forces many female workers to delay or postpone marriage, childbirth and other nurturing roles, according to Grace. "They touch your breasts and buttocks, and you are not to complain. They don't care if you are a mother or someone's wife," Grace told IRIN. "We just stay because we have nowhere else to go. Those who tried to hit back and defend themselves have been arrested by the police and jailed," she added. SCANTY UNION REPRESENTATION Human rights experts blame what they describe as the abuse of workers rights in the EPZs on inadequate laws, corruption in the judiciary, and weak trade unions. They say legislation introducing labour unions in Kenya's EPZs was only enacted after the National Rainbow Coalition (Narc) government came into power in December 2002. But despite this change, workers complain that they are still barred from joining unions. Labour officers called in to investigate workers' claims of mistreatment reportedly often take sides with the investors, accusing workers of indiscipline. "They [employers] scoff at us. They have told us we cannot take them anywhere. Even if we went to complain to the top leadership of Narc, we will find them there," said Gladys, an EPZ worker. According to Victor Olewe, a legal officer at the Kituo cha Sheria (Kiswahili for legal aid centre), little progress has been made towards improving labour conditions in the country since independence from Britain in 1963. Kenya, he says, has at least eight pieces of legislation relating to various aspects of labour, but these have remained obdurate, inadequate and inconsistent with the international labour law. Even where unions existed, they had been easy to manipulate, and union bosses were often compromised by employers, Olewe told IRIN. "Trade unions are engaging in politics instead of articulating workers' rights," he said. "Workers are a poor lot in Kenya. They drive the economy, but are treated like donkeys," he added. Kenyan laws, for example, empower the head of state to remove from office one of the three senior officials of the national trade union body, according to Olewe. "What does the executive have to do with trade unions?" he asked. The problem was compounded by the inefficiency of government labour officials, with the result that most cases against employers never reached court, Olewe said. "The labour laws don't seem to change. What we need is a proper overhaul of the legislation. We need a dynamic law, which will drive this market. Presently, I don't think we can go anywhere," he added. WHY EPZ COMPANIES? In a new report on EPZs in Kenya, the KHRC said labour conditions in EPZs reflected the worst effects of globalisation, which, contrary to their objective of empowerment, end up becoming "factories for the manufacture of poverty". As happened in other Third World countries, said the report, entitled "Manufacturing poverty: The story of EPZs in Kenya", EPZs were partly products of globalisation and partly those of donor conditionalities which had forced the Kenyan government to adopt legislative measures to liberalise the economy as a means of attracting foreign investment. Amendments to the country's legislation at the recommendation of the IMF and World Bank, also circumvented the requirement of union involvement, introducing the concept of retrenchment, giving employers "exclusive, unequivocal and unbridled power" to hire and fire workers, the report added. Cheap labour, as Kenya's comparative advantage in this endeavour, had therefore created a situation where workers' rights were sacrificed by way of official acknowledgement of "minimum" as opposed to "living" wages, the report added. "Factories seek a workforce that will produce optimal results, hence the preference for young, unattached women who will not only easily give in to work-based exploitation but also accept low pay without undue fuss," the report states. This in addition to weak and indifferent labour laws, a corrupt and ineffective labour movement, coupled with a tedious judicial process, was to be blamed for the unbearable working conditions in EPZ factories, it noted. "The wages are insufficient for even basic needs, forcing them into sexual relationships with their superiors or into such measures as skipping meals and sharing tiny rooms," the report said. "Jobs that pay poverty wages do not significantly improve the lot of workers, nor their socioeconomic status to become better parents or partners," it added. ECONOMIC DEGRADATION But according to Chifallu, decades of economic degradation witnessed in the country since independence in 1963, have depressed labour conditions, not just in EPZs, but in virtually all sectors of the country's economy, causing the decline being witnessed in most productive economic sectors. As a result, he said, the labour market in the country was saturated and, as things stood, EPZs were currently the only sector in Kenya which was still taking on people. "Our country has undergone severe political and economic mismanagement so you cannot expect these problems to be corrected by the snap of a finger," Chifallu said. "In a country where there is more supply than demand, it becomes very difficult," he added. Criticising the civil society campaign in Kenya, Chifallu said the issue of labour conditions in EPZs was a more complex issue due to its involvement in international trade, and if not carefully handled, would jeopardise the 36,000 jobs. "The industry operates in a complicated matrix. But the approach they [campaigners] are using is isolating the country and placing 36,000 jobs at risk," he said. "In a country such as ours, given our predicament, we need our people working. If you go out to influence consumers to boycott these products, the investors will simply leave you and go somewhere else," he added. GLOBAL CAMPAIGN A global campaign being carried out by various NGOs targets mainly big food and clothing retailers, who are regarded as the worst culprits responsible for depressing employment conditions in EPZs for millions of women workers around the world. By using their power at the top of global supply chains to squeeze their suppliers to deliver, the companies deny millions of women of their fair share of benefits of globalisation by transferring the pressure on women workers in the form of longer hours at faster work rates, with poor pay, campaigners say. According to Gerard Steehouwer of Oxfam Holland, the growth of EPZs and violation of workers' rights around the world are symptoms of the same disease - the neo-liberal economic model focusing on net exports, in which governments are forced to compete with one another in offering an easy investment climate, that included tax holidays and "flexible" labour laws. With more than 3,000 EPZs in 100 countries around the world, major brand companies and supermarket chains had a wide range of choice in goods such as textiles and farm products from Third World countries, which helped drive down their buying prices and increase their profit margins, Steehouwer, who is the organisation's global fair trade campaign coordinator, told IRIN. This stiff competition squeezed factory owners, who in turn were forced to pay poor wages to reduce the cost of production, he added. "These brand companies are squeezing out local producers, who in turn squeeze their workers," Steehouwer said. "The misery is going down the supply chain while the profits are going up the supply chain. It is time to take the second step and give labour rights and a living wage to workers," he added. Steehouwer contends, however, that the campaign is seeking stricter implementation of an existing international Code of Conduct for EPZ factories, as opposed to advocating for the closure of the factories, as that would have adverse effects for millions of people employed in the zones. "We are not saying that EPZs are bad per se. We are saying this model of economic trade has to change, because it is not giving people the right jobs," he added. He said implementation of the EPZ Code of Conduct was at best superficial, because intimidated workers were being forced to lie about their working conditions during inspections by supermarket chains. "This story has to be told, and not just cosmetic checks. These people [the brand companies] have to go down to the factory floor and talk to workers in the absence of their managers," he said. Oxfam was by the end of last week also to launch a similar campaign for the Olympic games, targeting sportswear companies which had refused to cooperate on improving labour conditions of factory workers in developing countries, Steehouwer said. The campaign, dubbed "Play fair at the Olympics" aims at highlighting the plight of workers in the sportswear factories. "We first start to dialogue with the companies. If they don't work with us, we put pressure and organise public protests to expose the misery behind their labels," Steehouwer said.