SWEATSHOPS IN AUSTRALIA

Designers' suburban sweatshops | The Daily Telegraph

LEADING designer clothes sold in stores for up to $600 are being made for as little as $35 by an underpaid army of migrant workers in western Sydney garages and apartments.

An investigation into Sydney's sweatshops by The Sunday Telegraph has found leading fashion designers including Nicola Finetti, Natasha Gan and Ginger&Smart, are paying Vietnamese and Chinese families between $10 and $35 to produce clothes later sold in stores for at least 10 times the price.

During a two-week investigation, The Sunday Telegraph visited13 outworker operations in Sydney - mostly in the west - where high-end fashion houses outsource the manufacture of their garments.

The scene was the same in every home: glamorous designs being sown in cluttered conditions by workers who said they were not paid enough and who also feared they would lose their jobs to even cheaper labour in China.
The revelation prompted Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard to call on Australian fashion designers to take responsibility for where their garments were made and ensure fair pay.

Instead, Ginger&Smart promptly cancelled its contract with a factory after learning of The Sunday Telegraph's visit accompanied by officials of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union.

In the garage of a fibro house in Birrong, we found two women in their late fifties sewing a next-season Nicola Finetti waistcoat. The women, working for a registered company, Dunlong Fashions, said they were paid $16 to make each waistcoat.

A design sheet showed the garment was part of Finetti's 2010 Autumn/Winter collection. While the waistcoats were not in stores yet, Finetti sold similar designs for around $300.

Dunlong Fashions owner Tran Long, 58, said he no longer wanted to be involved in the industry.

"It's normal to be paid just 5 per cent of the selling price,'' he said.

"Finetti gives us $16 for a piece and the reason we are still hanging around is because we have nothing else to do.''

A red-brick house in Chipping Norton is home to Chipping Norton Fashions, where elderly couple Louis Van Le and his wife are sewing garments for Moss&Spy. When we arrived, the couple were frantically working on a beige satin wrap-around blouse on sewing machines in their garage. Each garment takes them two hours to produce.

Mr Van Le said he is paid $20 for each completed blouse. The same blouse retails for $206.
Lia Tsimos, designer of Moss&Spy, blamed the retailers.

"The garment makes $206 retail but we are actually selling it for $89 wholesale,'' she said.

"As a wholesaler we are selling to retailers who then put the price up. We are struggling with wages and struggling trying to keep our production in Australia.''

At an operation run out of a family home in Punchbowl, outworkers were producing Natasha Gan dresses. Racks of freshly pressed clothing were hanging in the driveway and the clatter of sewing machines could be heard.

The outworkers, registered under the name Quang Trang Fashions, refused requests for photographs.

An invoice, supplied to The Sunday Telegraph, reveals the family is paid $18 to make a black frill dress.It is sold in stores for $240.

The owner refused to disclose how much of the $18 he paid to his employees. A notice at one operation warned employees not to talk while they worked and gave them 50 minutes off in a nine-hour day.

The union estimates about 70 per cent of retail clothing outworkers in Sydney are Vietnamese and 30 per cent are Chinese.

Amity Lynch, campaign co-ordinator of FairWear Australia, said she'd worked with many outworkers, and fashion houses often neglected to pay their makers at all.

Steve Davies, the assistant secretary of The Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union of Australia, said the conditions in sweatshops around Sydney were appalling.

However, he said he was pleased Australian designers were producing garments onshore at a time when many companies were sending their work to factories overseas.

Recently, Bonds, Willow and Fleur Wood have taken their manufacturing business to Asia.

"We want the work to stay in Australia but we want the workers to be treated properly,'' Mr Davies said.

"If they are working in a house they are deemed by the law to be outworkers who are casual employees, which means they deserve $21 an hour and casual benefits.''

Mr Davies said the ``majority of the clothing made in Australia is made by outworkers''. The TCFUA estimates there are more than 300 garage manufacturers in Sydney.

"The fashion houses can afford to pay manufacturers more ... this is just greed,'' John Owen, another TCFUA official, said.

Mr Finetti said the waistcoat made in Birrong was a sample and the garment prices negotiable.

"He must come back to us and see if it is correct or how long will it take to be made. Do you think it's my problem?

"It is not my responsibility.''

Ginger&Smart director Marie-Claude Mallat said the label ``regularly visits its contractors' premises and is very happy to work with the unions if they have an issue with any particular contractor.

"The retail price of this garment has nothing to do with the price we provide our contractors.''

Natasha Gan did not return The Sunday Telegraph's calls.