Rozaline Ivanova (third from left)
and some fellow thinking women

TW Event Report

By Charlotte Hamilton

Ethical Shopping: Who Foots the Bill?

Kate Byron, Women Working Worldwide and Ruth Bergan, Homeworkers Worldwide
Guest speaker Rozaline Ivanova (Kaloian – Bulgarian Homeworkers Organisation)

The theme of the evening was the rights of female homeworkers and the challenges they face across the world.

Kate Byron from Women Working Worldwide introduced the evening, and explained the origins of WWW which aims to give women a sense of the whole supply chain and the value of the goods they make. Originally, WWW brought together garment workers from Manchester with their counterparts in the Phillipines; more recent projects have focussed on the flower industry in Kenya, Uganda, Zambia and Tanzania. Find out more at www.women-ww.org. Kate also ran through a presentation from Homeworkers Worldwide as unfortunately their representative was unable to attend.

She then handed over to Rozalina, who is a homeworker from Bulgaria. Through an interpreter, Rozalina told us how the arrival of democracy to her country in 1989 resulted in considerable decline in working conditions and rights for many Bulgarians. She estimates there are currently around 500,000 homeworkers in Bulgaria, so communication and co-ordination is all but impossible. The efforts of her local council helped to raise pay from 20 to 30 eurocents per hour, but this is still extremely low vs the cost of living (for comparison, a loaf of bread costs around 50 cents). Rozalina saw a pair of the brand of shoes she stitches for sale in Leeds for £78, so she and her fellow homeworkers are aware of the huge profits being built into the process, of which they are not getting their fair share.

There's a catch 22 situation for homeworkers: they want to push corporations to pay homeworkers fairly by raising awareness of their situation, but they cannot risk those companies simply taking their work elsewhere if their complaints generate bad PR. Further complicating the issues, no proof exists of who is actually doing what work and how much they are being paid - paperwork is routinely destroyed. Rozalina discussed a system they are trying to maintain whereby homeworkers get signed receipts for all their work - we all agreed this was a vital step as any written documentation helps build the case for fair payment for homeworkers.

We had an open discussion about the different parties involved in the process, and where Rozalina's peers are best applying pressure. The goal is for homeworkers to be acknowledged for their role in the supply chain, not taking them out of the chain or taking away their work.

There are no easy answers! There is a real demand amongst women in Bulgaria (and across the world) for home work, they are just hoping for small, reasonable improvements: higher price per piece allowing them to reduce their working hours (from c.12hrs a day!), some provision of health insurance as they had pre-democracy, and most of all, to have a contract to ensure the work is regular and stable.

It was a really thought-provoking evening and we all left with details of many pressure groups and ways to get involved in the fight for homeworkers rights! Thanks pressure groups and ways to get involved in the fight for homeworkers rights! Let us know any thoughts you have on this topic