Is Human Rights Due Diligence in Myanmar’s Garment Sector Working?
As hurricanes, strikes and the ever-shifting geopolitical ground continue to hold the apparel and footwear supply chain in the grip of sustained chaos, deteriorating labor conditions in civil-war-torn Myanmar are, if not being forgotten, at least becoming less of an immediate concern since the military junta violently seized power in 2021.
And “deteriorating” is the operative word, according to the nonprofit Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), which maintains an allegation tracker that captures publicly reported information on garment worker abuses in the beleaguered Southeast Asian nation, which has shown few signs of returning to a semi-civilian government despite widespread condemnation from the international community.
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Several major brands and retailers, including H&M Group, Zara owner Inditex, Lidl and Primark have declared that they will be exiting Myanmar because of the due diligence challenges the shrinking democratic space has posed. But others, such as Bestseller, have committed to stay because they fear that divesting from the country would leave workers worse off than ever. They claim that their “enhanced” due diligence are sufficient to stave off violations such as wage theft, inhumane work rates, mandatory overtime, denial of leave, unsafe working conditions and harassment and intimidation, which are the most common complaints flagged by the BHRRC.
But whatever brands are doing to prop up Myanmar’s garment exports, which topped $4.3 billion in 2023-2024 financial year, according to its ministry of commerce, isn’t working, said Natalie Swan, labor rights program manager at the BHRRC. In the six months between Dec. 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, the organization logged 155 cases of abuse against the country’s predominantly female garment workers, a 33 percent increase from the 111 cases recorded during the same period last year.
Though the number of complaints since Feb. 1, 2021, now stands at 556—many involving multiple workers across hundreds of factories—the tallies are only the “tip of the iceberg,” she said. Most workers are too afraid of retaliation to come forward with their claims. More than two dozen employees at an Adidas supplier, for instance, lost their jobs after protesting for higher wages at the close of 2022.
Of particular note for Swan was the sharp increase in the number of allegations linked to the due diligence process itself. Over half a year, the BHRRC found 13 cases of workers who said they were forced or coached into lying to government officials and brand representatives during the inspections that risk assessments rely on.
“It might not seem like a glamorous number, but actually that is stark, and it is an uptick,” she said. “And, you know, three and a half years on, the setup clearly isn’t right still for due diligence, and companies need to be really answerable to that. What these cases show is that audits can’t necessarily be trusted.”
But it isn’t just the number of allegations that are increasing but also their severity, said Mayisha Begum, labor program officer at the BHRRC. Generating these updates is a way to remind the industry that worker suffering is still a problem, she said. These include the brands that say they’re in the middle of responsible exits, but like H&M and Lidl, are still popping up in the tracker. Over the examined period, H&M and Lidl, together with LPP, New Yorker and Workman, were linked to the highest number of claims through factories they reportedly or have recently sourced from.
H&M, which said it’s still “gradually phasing out” its operations according to IndustriALL Global Union’s framework for businesses responsibly disengaging from Myanmar, said it was able to “react immediately” to seek a solution in each of the cases raised by the BHRRC.
“All issues reported to us, have already been resolved, often thanks to close cooperation between local trade unions, our suppliers and the local H&M Group team at the production office in Yangon,” a spokesperson said. “Our team is closely and regularly following up with suppliers to ensure that any violations are identified and appropriately remedied. In this difficult and complex situation, we cannot stress enough the importance that all stakeholders work closely together to tackle any issues.”
Lidl said that its exit from Myanmar will be complete by the end of the month, though it has and will continue to take all potential human and labor rights violations in Myanmar that it’s aware of “very seriously.”
“Unfortunately, our experience in Myanmar since our decision to make a responsible exit, which we took in December 2023, has repeatedly confirmed that we made the right decision in withdrawing from the country,” a representative said. “Due to the political situation, we face the challenge to carry out audits in time and to correctly assess the resulting findings and initiate corrective measures.”
LPP, New Yorker and Workman did not respond to requests for comment.
The BHRRC doesn’t advocate that brands stay or leave. It’s a complicated issue, one with no obvious or straightforward solution. But Swan thinks that all the companies that have deemed, through their risk assessments, that it’s better to divest from Myanmar have already made their decision. What’s left is the “status quo of companies that are deeply committed to sourcing from the country,” she said. And the fact that 87 brands—out of a total of 158 since tracking began—are connected with this recent batch of complaints is a sign that oversight and scrutiny are still lacking.
“Obviously, our challenge to them is, ‘How are you mitigating those risks through heightened due diligence and really taking the seriousness of the issue to heart?’ And, ‘What does the landscape look like?’” Swan said. “Those companies that are staying—many are citing livelihoods. O.K., what does this actually mean for workers’ wages? We’ve got some really serious allegations going to safety inside and outside of the workplace. How are you answering that?”
For brands that have decided to leave but haven’t yet, their responsibility continues until the delivery of the final order. The last thing they should do, she said, is “cut and run.” So far, there has been a dearth of transparency about what a responsible exit actually entails for these companies beyond vague platitudes.
“We do really need to make sure that an exit is followed up with a continued impetus for accountability from those brands,” Swan said. “What is being done isn’t being told to us.”
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