Sustainable Fashion: A Handbook for Educators

87

IntroductIon

Students are given a task to complete in preparation
for a workshop/seminar discussion. The preparation can
involve online and ‘in store’ research. In class they complete
a task to calculate the unit labour cost^1. A PowerPoint
presentation is available at http://www.fashioninganethicalindustry.
org/teachingresources/livingwage to feed in key points
about the global value chain in garment manufacture
and the make up of a freight/free on board price. The
Educator’s Note gives some guidance to support the
student tasks that are set out at the end of this paper.

Educator’s notE

STUDENT TASK 1: PrEPArATIoN ACTIVITY

Please complete this task sheet for the next session. Feel
free to work in pairs or small groups.

1. Find out the typical price of a plain adult cotton t-shirt.
   You may wish to do a price comparison on the internet
   or visit some high street stores.


2. For the purposes of this task, we are going to assume
   that our t-shirt was sourced in Bangladesh. How much
   do you think the high street or online retailer paid the
   factory for the shirt?

STUDENT TASK 2: IN CLASS

The workers at the factory where the t-shirt is assembled
work a standard 8 hour day, 26 days per month on average
(excluding overtime).
The wage scales for workers in the Bangladeshi industry
are as follows:

Grades Position Monthly Wage

in Taka

Monthly Wage in

£ Sterling

1 Pattern Master 5140 £41.98

2 Mechanic 3840 £31.36

3 Sample Machinist 2449 £20.00

4 Cutter 2250 £18.37

5 Junior Cutter 2046 £16.70

6 Sewing Machinist 1851 £15.12

7 Assistant

Operator

1662.5 £13.58

Source: People’s Republic of Bangladesh Government Ministry of Labour
and Employment, Minimum Wage Ordinance, October 22 2006

The machinists are organised in actual production lines

of 12 and have a daily production target of 900. Of

course many more workers are engaged in the whole

manufacturing process. In this particular case, some 51

workers are involved in the full process from stores

through cutting to assembly and inspection. The specific

occupations and numbers of workers necessary are set out

in the table below.:

Tasks No of

Workers

Daily Rate in

Taka

Total Amount

Stores 4 107 428

Cutting 5 86.5 432.5

Machinists 12 86.5 1038

Inspectors 2 86.5 173

Helpers 6 64 384

Washers/Thread

Cutters

10 64 640

Ironing & Packing 12 86.5 1038

TOTALS 51 4133.5

The workers are paid an hourly rate and do not receive a

production bonus or piece rate.

The total wage cost for making the t-shirt is calculated

by dividing the relevant monthly wage for the specific

category of worker by 26 to determine a daily labour cost

(column 2).

This is then multiplied by the number of workers

performing the task and the total gives the daily labour cost

to achieve the production target (column 3).

1. Total up columns 1 and 3.


2. Calculate the labour cost involved in assembling each
   t-shirt (unit labour cost).
   You will need to divide column 3 by 900 to arrive at a
   unit labour cost.
   You can set the information out in this table:

Number of workers in line 51

Target number of shirts per day 900

Total wage bill for day 4,133.5

Unit labour cost 4.59 Taka

Unit labour costs in £/$ 3.9 pence/6.6 cents

(^1) The activity is based on actual industry figures on wages as at October 2006 and
production line balancing figures provided by CSR/sourcing managers from a major
multinational retailer.
BusInEss