by her supervisor at an H&M supply factory after months of harassment. H&M said it has launched an independent investigation into her death, which will be conducted by the Worker Rights Consortium, and added: “H&M Group is taking this situation incredibly seriously, and recognise that we have responsibility to ensure workers are safe throughout our supply chain. We are continuing to work with the relevant trade union to find the best way forward.
“It’s been really difficult because both of our families depend on us for income. I didn’t get my full severance pay and had to take out a loan of 40,000 taka . We were renting a house before, but we’ve had to move as we could no longer afford the rent. We can pay for basic food, but don’t have meat with our meals any more and we can’t afford the medicine we need.
“There have been a lot of orders coming through so we’ve had to work a lot of overtime, but we haven't been paid for it. One person is given a two-person job to do and when we can’t manage to do that job, the bosses yell at us to work faster and insult us. They push us around sometimes and if we complain about the work pressure, they tell us to leave if we don’t want to work there any more.
“We’re in a very grave situation. We fear we may lose our jobs – I not only worry for myself, but all 4,500 employees at my factory who might lose their jobs. Seventy-five per cent of us are women, and many are married and have children. As the president of the union branch, I have been harassed for speaking out for other garment workers. Companies are also finding strategic ways to lay off union activists first – it’s already happened in some other factories.
“I look after my two younger brothers who are still studying and pay for their school fees. I struggled to find work after being laid off, so had no other choice but to ask my mother to help me with rent and daily expenses. My mother had to borrow money from the bank, and then find work to pay it back.
“I hope the brands I used to produce clothes for will help me and other garment workers because they received a lot of profit from the work we did – we put all of our energy into it. Now, the factory is closed, we’re all in a very difficult situation.”“I’ve been working in the garment industry for 40 years, since arriving in the US from Mexico. I caught Covid-19 in October and I’m still sick.
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