A Promise to Improve Labour Rights Globally

As Europe’s largest economy and clothing importer, Germany could become an actor of change in labour law due to its new law, enforcing companies to actively prevent, minimize, and eliminate human rights violations across the workforce in Pakistan and worldwide.

“The law is opening up space for [the unions] to negotiate, to be heard, and to be taken seriously,” explains Miriam Saage-Maass, the legal director at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights.

Germany’s Supply Chain Act covers forced labour, union-busting, and inadequate wages. No more relying on voluntary – and poorly monitored – commitments from the garment sector to enforce these protections; the law gives legal power to curb poor labour conditions. The industry will feel some of the highest impacts of new due diligence rules, including fines of up to $8.7 million for noncompliance. Other Western countries like France and Norway have adopted similar legislation in recent years, and soon, a European Union law mandating all its member states to implement such regulation will be greenlighted. Solidarity from Europe could change the lives of Pakistan’s workers as the focus is now on brands being made accountable for their mistakes.