South Asia and Southeast Asia have been facing an exceptional heat wave, which in several countries has caused the mercury to rise above 40 degrees Celsius, with peaks of up to 45.
From Bangladesh to Thailand, passing through vast regions of India, Myanmar, Cambodia and the Philippines, there have been casualties due to the high temperatures. Governments have run for cover by decreeing the closure of schools. But there is also another aspect on which it becomes particularly significant to dwell on this day of 1 May: the effect that increasingly prohibitive weather conditions have on the world of work.
It was precisely to the incidence of this problem in the countries now affected by the exceptional heat wave that the Global Labour Institute, the research institute of the American University of Cornell that analyses working conditions in the supply chains of global markets, devoted an interesting study a few months ago. Entitled ’A Higher Level? The Climate Crisis, the World of Fashion and its Effects on Workers’, the survey deals with the impact of two phenomena such as rising temperatures and increasingly frequent flooding on the lives of workers in the textile and footwear industries in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Pakistan and Vietnam, four countries that alone account for 18% of world production in these sectors.
They come to an extremely alarming conclusion: without adequate mitigation measures, not only will the health of local workers become more and more at risk every day, but also the very productivity of the companies is destined to collapse, with the real risk of a ‘cut and run’ approach that would entail very high social costs.