Working together to end poverty and injustice

Labour rights

International trade can bring much needed employment to the developing world and has the potential to allow workers to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. But many industries are failing in this potential and instead, workers struggle to earn a living and are forced to work long hours in terrible conditions. They are being systematically denied their fair share of the benefits brought by international trade.  

Oxfam campaigners wear masks to draw attention to the fact that we rarely think about the identities and lives of the women who make the sports gear we buy. Photo: Matthew Vasilescu/OxfamAUS.

Take the multibillion dollar sportswear industry. Major sportswear brands rake in billions of dollars in profits every year, spend millions of dollars on slick ad campaigns and sponsor the highest-earning players in sport from David Beckham to Michael Jordan. But workers making these products for the big sportswear brands work in appalling conditions and earn barely enough to survive.

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Take action

Oxfam believes that companies contracting out their manufacturing to factories in the developing world need to take a more active role to protect the rights of workers who make their products. Oxfam is calling for workers to have a right to bargain collectively for decent wages and for working conditions which respect their dignity.

• Buy Fairtrade products, to send a loud signal to retailers that consumers care and are willing to pay for decent labour standards

Reports and resources

• Download Offside!: Labour rights and sportswear production in Asia (PDF file 4mb)
• Download Play Fair at the Olympics (PDF File 2.5mb)
• Download the Oxfam report: Trading Away our Rights: Women Working in Global Supply Chains(PDF File 2.2mb)
• Download the Oxfam discussion paper: Paying the Price for the Economic Crisis (PDF 191 kb)