Cliquea aquí para ver este sitio en Español
Estale para ver aqui este local no Português
What We Do / Campaigns
Who Foots the Bill? - Decent work for homeworkers in the leather footwear industry
Who Foots the Bill? is one of HomeWorkers Worldwide's key campaigns. This section of the website includes resources on homeworking in international footwear supply chains. Scroll down or click on the links to the right to find out more: get an overview in our factsheet; hear direct from a homeworker in our interview with Roza; try and figure out an international supply chain or get a more in-depth picture in our briefing paper.
Who Foots the Bill? Briefing Paper
For our full analysis of homeworking in international supply chains and homeworkers' demands to retailers, download our briefing paper here.
79.9 KB PDF document
Who Foots the Bill? Leaflet
Short outline of the issues that can be reproduced and used on stalls or with groups.
835.8 KB PDF document
Who Foots the Bill? Leaflet in Bulgarian
1.6 MB PDF document
Homeworkers in many different countries are working on the production of leather shoes. Traditional shoe-makers often make the whole shoe at home. In modern production chains, the most common part of the manufacturing process given out to homeworkers is the stitching of the top part of the shoe, known as the ‘uppers’. Sometimes homeworkers also stitch the uppers to the soles, or add decorations to the shoe. The work is often done by hand although sometimes using a machine.
Global production chains
Over the past 10-15 years, consumers have increasingly bought shoes for one season, rather than to keep until they wear out. Retailers have responded to this and now change styles more often, with some even having a '52-season' year.
This has contributed to the process of producing a shoe becoming increasingly complex, and different elements of production for one pair of shoes are often spread across a number of different countries. For example, Italian companies have subsidiaries or subcontractors in the Balkan countries. These smaller companies put out much of their work to even smaller workshops and intermediaries who give out the work to homeworkers. The Italian companies then export their products throughout the world, particularly to rich countries in the North of Europe or North America.
Similar patterns of the global organisation of production can be found on all continents. Homeworkers can be found in most production chains, along with other informal workers doing essential assembly work.
Rights for Homeworkers
“We have to work for seven days a week… We have to work for ten hours a day, or more, for very low wages... There is no social insurance, for health or pensions”
Homeworkers in the footwear industry across the world complain of poor terms and conditions. For example, a homeworker in Bulgaria is paid on a piece rate for each pair of shoes that she completes. For a pair of shoes which retails at 100 Euros, she is usually paid between one half and four-fifths of a Euro. Homeworkers say that, in order to make a living, a family of four needs 200 Euros or 400 pairs of shoes per month and they would need to work for 66 hours per week to achieve this. Women often fit the work around other responsibilities including childcare and growing fruit and vegetables.
"One of the problems for homeworkers, and a constant humiliation, is that nowhere are they mentioned by their name. The subcontractors know them only by a number. Homeworkers are the most invisible"
Low pay is just one of the many complaints that homeworkers have. Women are concentrated in the most insecure and repetitive areas of employment in the footwear sector. They talk about the negative impact on their health of using toxic glues or stitching leather with thread of the same colour. They also experience backache and pains in their hands and fingers if the leather is difficult to stitch.
Other key issues common to homeworkers in a range of industries include:
- An irregular supply of work - if there is no work, they have no income.
- Unequal payment between homeworkers for the same work.
- Not being treated as workers.
- Not having a written contract.
- Having no insurance.
- Having no pension.
- Excessive and low or un-paid overtime.
- Delays in payment for work – one worker interviewed had been waiting for nine months to be paid.
This is a common picture throughout the world wherever the production of leather footwear is found. Homeworkers in these chains are demanding the right to be treated as other workers, with full employment and social security rights.