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News
BMA highlights poor conditions for workers manufacturing medical supplies.
Posted
23rd August 2010
The British Medical Association (BMA)'s Fair and Ethical Trade Group are raising concerns that some medical supplies such as surgical intruments, textiles and gloves used by the NHS are made in conditions that are unsafe, unethical and unfair.
The Ethical Trade Group recently visited Mexico, a major exporter of medical products. Mexico has well documented abuses of basic labour rights including child labour, the discrepancy between minimum and living wage, lack of union representation, and overexploitation of young women who form a significant proportion of the workforce.
The Ethical Trade Group identified a significant use of homeworkers in the medical product supply chains. For many of these homeworkers the piece rates they received were insufficient, meaning they had to take on large volumes of work, involving family and friends to help, including their children, in order to make a decent income.
Olivia Roberts of the BMA argues that NHS staff can use its purchasing power to call for changes to the global system and, ultimately, improve the lives of workers around the world.
Related link:
http://www.publicservice.co.uk/feature_story.asp?id=14681