Protecting Labor Rights in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Sector

Protecting Labor Rights in Uzbekistan’s Cotton Sector

Oct 7, 2024

World Cotton Day – October 9, 2024: As ubiquitous as cotton is in our everyday lives, the workers who produce and harvest this foundational crop are often invisible. This was long the case in Uzbekistan, where for decades the government forcibly mobilized millions of people, sometimes including children, to harvest cotton for state-owned enterprises. A long-running global advocacy campaign led by the Cotton Campaign, of which Solidarity Center was a founding member, helped push the government to implement reforms that brought that system to an end in 2021.

Ending state-organized forced labor was a major accomplishment, but establishing just and equitable working conditions in the cotton sector is a longer journey. With support from the U.S. Department of Labor, the Solidarity Center is working to put in place building blocks that will allow workers to ensure their rights are protected. The Solidarity Center signed an agreement with the Ministry of Employment and Poverty Reduction of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the project’s co-implementing partner, the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), in December 2022 to begin project work. As the 2023 harvest season gets underway, Solidarity Center and CIPE are working closely with stakeholders in government, civil society and business to work from the field up and from oversight authorities down to build knowledge within the cotton sector about fundamental rights and strengthen mechanisms to ensure those rights are secured.

For the 2023 harvest, this includes:

  • In collaboration with the ministry’s labor inspection and legal team, the Solidarity Center and CIPE have prepared and printed more than 10,000 leaflets for distribution to cotton pickers during the ongoing harvest season. These leaflets provide cotton pickers with accessible and comprehensive information about their fundamental rights as seasonal workers under Uzbekistan’s Labor Code. The content covers essential worker protections and includes critical contact information, such as the Labor Inspection hotline and a project-run Telegram channel, where workers can anonymously report violations and seek free legal consultation. The leaflets have been also distributed to groups working in different regions across Uzbekistan to maximize outreach. This initiative plays a crucial role in raising awareness among seasonal workers, ensuring they are informed of their rights and the enforcement mechanisms available to them if their rights are violated. Providing clear and accessible information about legal protections and enforcement channels will be essential to empowering cotton workers to assert their rights, and increased awareness is critical to improving compliance with international labor standards, which is the route to creating a more sustainable and transparent cotton sector.
  • The Solidarity Center, in partnership with the Tashkent Mediation Center and the State Labor Inspectorate, successfully conducted a two-day training session October 2–3 in Tashkent aimed at enhancing the capacity of mediators to resolve individual labor disputes. The training, facilitated by a regional expert, introduced participants to mediation as an alternative mechanism for labor dispute resolution. The comprehensive curriculum, a blend of theoretical knowledge and practical exercises, equipped 10 mediators from the Tashkent Mediation Center and Labor Inspection staff with the skills to mediate and effectively resolve individual labor disputes. The head of the Labor Inspectorate emphasized the importance of continued collaboration and capacity building as critical to providing workers in the cotton sector with an effective remedy for labor rights violations. 

These harvest-period activities supplement an ongoing rights awareness and education program the Solidarity Center and CIPE are implementing with workers and employers in the cotton sector. A core priority of that program in the coming year will be to ensure that all workers in the cotton sector have a written employment contract with clear, enforceable conditions of work. Employment contracts are vital to healthy labor relations that, unfortunately, are absent in many agricultural supply chains. 

Recent reforms in Uzbekistan requiring labor contracts for all workers in cotton production have the potential to help the country distinguish itself as a high-road option for textile sourcing, if those reforms can be implemented and enforced. Developing workplace-level reporting and monitoring systems for workers to verify their rights are being respected, and to seek remedy if they are not, will be an important next step to positioning Uzbekistan as a leader in developing sustainable and just textile supply chains.

Funding is provided by the United States Department of Labor under cooperative agreement number IL-38908-22-75-K, through a sub-award from the Solidarity Center. 100% of the total costs of the project or program is financed with federal funds, for a total of $1,018,814. This material does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government.

GROUNDBREAKING UZBEKISTAN COTTON AGREEMENT, PROJECT

GROUNDBREAKING UZBEKISTAN COTTON AGREEMENT, PROJECT

Jan 8, 2024

A groundbreaking cooperative agreement seeking to improve working conditions and prevent forced labor was signed this week for workers, ‘at all stages of cotton and textile production in Uzbekistan.’ Agreement signatories include U.S.-based Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE), employers’ Association of Cotton-Textile Clusters of Uzbekistan, the Solidarity Center and the Uzbekistan Ministry of Employment.

The two-year memorandum of cooperation is the cornerstone of a new CIPE-Solidarity Center project that was launched at a public event in Tashkent in November. By meeting the sector’s need for an effective reporting and grievance remedy system, and providing an education and incentive system supportive to compliance, the project seeks to build on a 15-year effort that successfully eradicated forced labor in Uzbekistan’s cotton supply chain. 

The “Enhancing Transparency and Accountability in the Cotton Industry of Uzbekistan” project—which will be implemented by CIPE and the Solidarity Center through activities laid out in the agreement’s accompanying action plan—is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor.

“The Solidarity Center looks forward to working with CIPE and the Cluster Association to support development of a cotton industry in Uzbekistan that is recognized and rewarded in the global marketplace for upholding labor standards at the highest levels,” said Solidarity Center Executive Director Shawna Bader-Blau at the program launch.

Project goals include to expand stakeholder dialogue to promote transparent market and management standards and employee-oriented accountability systems; establish trust and dialogue among cotton purchasers, producers, workers and the government of Uzbekistan; strengthen Uzbekistan’s cotton supply chain workers’ capacity to identify and effectively resolve labor rights violations through tripartite mechanisms and improved dialogue with employers; improve compliance with international labor standards, including freedom of association and corporate governance provisions; and foster cotton industry sustainability in ways that ensure labor rights are respected and protected.

Under the agreement’s accompanying action plan, program activities will include:

  • Developing and piloting worker-led grievance and remedy mechanisms grounded in best international practices for supply chain transparency and management;
  • Training workers, managers and employers in the cotton industry on fundamental international standards as defined in core conventions of the International Labor Organization;
  • Promoting standards of transparency and commitment to labor rights and good corporate governance by creating a dialogue between stakeholders cotton enterprises, global brands, government agencies and worker representatives.

“We believe that our partnership will support the creation of effective management systems and serves to strengthen social protection, improve labor relations based on international standards and create decent and safe working conditions for workers,” said CIPE Managing Director for Programs Abdulwahab Alkebsi at the program launch.

After years of intense policy advocacy and campaigning, led by Uzbek and international civil society, combined with the Uzbek Government’s political will, state-imposed forced labor is no longer used in the cotton harvest. As a result, in March 2022, the Cotton Campaign ended its call for a global boycott of cotton from Uzbekistan and lifted the Uzbek Cotton Pledge.