Behind The Exquisite Garments!

Men Fashion

oi-Staff

By Staff

Tuesday, August 25, 2009, 15:51

Migrants In Australian Sweatshops Slog For Pay,while the high-end fashion houses make a ten-times more profit on the clothes. Ha'ng, a Vietnamese migrant laborer for the last ten years has been working in the sweatshops in one of the many non-descript and underpaying western Sydney garages and apartments. She and her daughter Li'eh are among the many migrant workers, who even after an eight to ten hour shift make as less as 35 dollars.

While their 35 dollars worth of labor spuns out high-end fashions clothes, which when sold by the leading brands bring-in the fashion-house as much as 600 dollars a piece.

The Sunday Telegraph, which carried out the investigation reported that leading fashion designers, including Nicola Finetti, Natasha Gan and Ginger & Smart, are paying Vietnamese and Chinese families between 10 and 35 dollars to produce clothes later sold in stores for at least 10 times the price.

As part of the investigation, the newspaper reporters visited as many as 13 sweatshop factories in West Sydney, to whom most of the high-end fashion houses outsource the manufacture of their garments.

They reported that the scene all these warehouses was same, with migrant workers scooped together toiling over glamorous designs, while they complained of being paid lowly wages and voiced fear of the condition getting worse with the competition from China, who employed even cheaper laborers and thus were able to provide the fashion houses with even cheaper alternatives.

Appalled by the revelation, the Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard even has asked the Australian fashion designers to take responsibility for where their garments were made and ensure fair pay.

But with the light of inquisition shining bright on the high-end designer labels, Ginger & Smart has promptly cancelled its contract with a factory after learning of The Sunday Telegraph's visit accompanied by officials of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union.

Such an unfair step as adopted by Ginger & Smart would only make matters worse for the migrant workers, and this certainly should opposed, those wearing these expensive dresses should certainly voice for the rights of these migrants.

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