Lesotho'S Garment Industry Is Facing "Moral Substitution"?

Lesotho is a small country in southern Africa, with only about two million immigrants.

Its national income is very low. It ranks 160 in the United Nations Human Development Index (180 countries). The annual income of workers is only 570 dollars, while 42% of them are unemployed.

However, in the past 8 years, Lesotho's textiles and

Rapidly developing into Africa's first place.

According to recent reports, after 15 years of development, Lesotho, a small Southern African country, finally reached its peak in 2008. Its textile and clothing exports amounted to US $340 million, accounting for 20% of the total GDP value.

In addition, 80% of clothing production in Lesotho serves American brands, such as Gap, Levi and WAL-MART.

Obviously, the development of Lesotho's clothing industry is very beneficial to the bottom workers.

Teboho Moeti is 34 years old. He is Formosa Plastics.

The workers in the factory pressed ironing shirts with a steam electric iron.

He cherished the job very much. He said, "I am not educated, but I can get $420 a month through this job."

Teboho's monthly salary includes bonus and other benefits, which is much higher than the minimum wage of 92 dollars in the industry.

And his working environment is much better than that of the Asian garment factories.

In Lesotho, more than 40 thousand workers (mostly female workers) work in more than 40 modern factories and are protected by labor law.

A factory supervisor in Lesotho said, "no citizen under 18 years old can work in a clothing factory."

The HIV infection rate in Lesotho is very high, up to 23.1% in adults, which has a negative impact on the garment industry. However, some organizations, such as: Lesotho, the fight against AIDS clothing alliance, are committed to preventing or treating AIDS patients.

But the unions have also raised a series of doubts about the biggest private employers.

Although labor laws stipulate holidays, sick leave, salaries, pensions and work-related injuries, these rights are not always guaranteed.

Thabo Tshabalala is a local official. He said, "although pregnant women are allowed to take leave, they will be fired soon after they get pregnant."

Many workers are asked to work for nine hours continuously, even if they are pregnant.

Although the labor law has been reformed and pregnant women are allowed to take leave for 6 weeks, most of them still do not know the reform. They still only invite two weeks.

In addition, the wages of workers in Lesotho are much lower than that of China.

Although societies are very liberal in theory, the rights of trade union members are often impeded.

In addition, health and safety is also a major problem in Lesotho's clothing industry.

Because of the high altitude and low temperature in Lesotho, workers often complain that the workshop is not warm enough.

Labour inspectors have also responded to other phenomena that violate health and safety regulations: lack of ventilation, low fire passage, unsafe storage, use of chemicals and dyestuffs, and shortage of respirators.

Since 2010, the International Labour Organization and the international financial corporation have launched the "Better Work Lesotho" to improve the factory's working environment and the relationship between workers and factories by monitoring whether the factories comply with the International Labour Organization's core labour standards and the state labor law.

Up to now, "Better Work Lesotho" and 22

Health and health issues related to workers were discussed.

Alex Jo Seng, from Taiwan, is a clothing factory owner.

"I didn't know the importance of fire drill and steam boiler inspection until Better Work Lesotho," he said.

I have more than 300 workers, and I want to disseminate these ideas to them, including technical experts from Taiwan.

Because the African Growth and Opportunity Act expired last year may threaten the economic profits of these industries.

Some experts are beginning to worry that Lesotho will not win in international competition.

Like other beneficiary bodies, Lesotho is also actively lobbying the United States to extend its 15 year period.

But the African Growth and Opportunity Act is not a good medicine, because the trade under the bill is more conducive to foreigners, rather than locals.

All the garment factories in Lesotho are owned by immigrants from China and Taiwan, and commentators are also thinking about how much foreign investment has brought to the country.

Tshabalala said: "the prosperity of Lesotho's garment industry is short and fragile. The economy stimulated by the African Growth and Opportunity Act is on the verge of crisis. If there is no such act, Lesotho's garment industry will be hard to develop.

Other countries will impose high tariffs on clothing and shoes exported from Lesotho, too high prices, and lose their competitive edge.

If the African Growth and Opportunity Act is not updated in September, there will be a lot of unemployment in Lesotho.