Trade liberalisation and employment loss in the South African clothing industry.

This report provides a brief overview of the development of the clothing industry and the impact of trade liberalisation in South Africa, which provides the broader context for understanding the socio-economic impact of of job losses within this industry.

It then sketches a vivid picture of the gendered impact of the adjustment costs of trade liberalisation on women in the clothing industry, illustrated through personal experiences. This material is drawn from interviews and focus group discussions conducted in 2003 among a random sample of 50 women clothing workers in the Western Cape who lost their jobs. While this is not a ‘representative’ sample, the documented lived experience of these women gives us a compelling picture of the human cost of job losses and the additional burdens this places on the day-to-day lives of thousands of women and their families. Statistics alone cannot tell their story. (p. 5)

While we cannot over-generalise from the results of this study, the picture that emerges shows clearly that retrenchment and liquidations have pushed women workers into deeper levels of poverty. It is also clear that labour markets exploit the weak position from which women enter the economy and reinforce gender inequality. As the profile of workers before loss of employment shows, female clothing workers are an especially insecure group. Many of these women were already battling to survive on their low wages, and many of them were the breadwinners in the household. They were already pooling resources and sharing basic living requirements with extended families. In many cases, their low wages also helped to support other dependants, in addition to their own children.

As a number of people are dependent on the clothing worker’s income, the impact of job loss has a ripple effect on households, especially on children. This increases the burden on these women who also fulfil domestic and reproductive functions in the home. Tensions rise over food, money and space. Women who were once active players in the labour market often lose their independence along with their income. Job loss pushes them into new power relations with ex-partners, partners or husbands, parents, and other members of their family. These women are not only financially disempowered, but can experience a diminished sense of worth and identity.

The ripple effect extends beyond the family and into the broader community as the clothing worker and her family become more dependent on others to provide their basic needs – for everything from food, money for transport fares, electricity, water and rent. Some women coped by moving in with family members to pool resources; others sent their children away to live with other family members. This has a direct effect on the social fabric of families and communities as parents are separated from their children. It is impossible to maintain healthy nutrition under these conditions as income losses curtail spending on food. This again builds reliance on family and community networks to get food. But these sources can be exhausted. Workers who had only been unemployed for two months were forced to ask neighbours for food and at times, finding their request denied. With broad unemployment in South Africa at 40 per cent, more and more people are edging below the breadline, with nothing to share. Losing a job means losing access to a sick fund, and unemployed workers join the ranks of those who depend on overburdened and under-resourced state facilities.

Most of the women interviewed had not completed secondary education, irrespective of their age. This shows that the attainment of secondary school qualifications is as difficult for a younger post-apartheid generation as for their older counterparts. After job loss, even paying school fees for preschool, primary and secondary school children becomes a problem, and children will eventually have to leave school to help earn an income. In this way the cycle of low education and all its consequences is perpetuated for another generation.

Conflict and violence in communities are mostly the result of crime. With high unemployment crime becomes rife. This provides the context for the endemic proportions of sexual violence against women and children. Ironically, coping strategies that lead to overpopulated dwellings can also breed conditions for sexual assault.

The women in the study were forced to manage their lives after retrenchment with little financial or emotional support. There were no community outreach programmes or services to address their needs or anxieties. The vast majority were not aware of any state institutions that they could even approach for help. While some women were receiving state grants – mostly old age pensions – most women experienced great difficulty in accessing their unemployment payouts, despite the fact that they have contributed to the Unemployment Insurance Fund while employed. All the women cited unaffordable transport costs as a barrier to finding new employment and accessing food aid, health care services or state benefits. Bureaucratic hold-ups in the payment of Provident Fund money made it even more difficult for women to maintain their livelihoods. It is particularly telling that although most women had lost their jobs only two months prior to the interviews, they were already battling, with no ‘safety-net’ to fall back on.

Like thousands of other women in South Africa who have lost their jobs over the past decade, the women in this study are in an emergency situation. The government, trade unions, and groups representing the interests of women need to learn from this experience for their future involvement in trade policy-making, and take immediate steps to prevent these women, their families and communities from slipping into a poverty trap. (p. 29)

Source: ‘The socio-economic impact of trade liberalisation and employment
loss on women in the South African clothing industry: A Cape Town case study’

Hameda Deedat and Christi van der Westhuizen

Published by the Economic Justice Network of the Fellowship of Christian Councils in South Africa (FOCCISA) 2004