4. FORCED LABOUR According to the ILO, workers who need to work overtime to complete the workload assigned to them and earn the minimum wage are forced labourers.¹⁵ In 50% of the researched factories, workers told the interviewers that they had worked overtime to complete their production quota without additional compensation in the previous months. If overtime was not included in their wages, none of the interviewees wouyld have been able to earn the legal minimum wage that should be paid for their regular working hours. Overtime information is never printed on the payslip, which only features the standard working hours. The refusal to do overtime may also generate tensions between the employees and the management or supervisors. Workers are expected to complete impossibly high quotas. In no case could production quotas be met within the given deadlines and regular working times, workers said. Often, increases in the minimum wages are accompanied by higher quotas. 5. BAD AIR AND INADEQUATE INDOOR TEMPERATURES, LACK OF ACCESS TO WATER 50% of the factories would operate in buildings without proper ventilation and air conditioning. According to the respondents, they have to cope with a suffocating indoor heat during the summer months; sometimes there are no windows and there is only one air conditioning machine for the entire factory. Fainting is quite common among workers. Appropriate amounts of drinking water are not provided in summertime. 6. MALTREATMENT, PRESSURE AND BULLYING Workers report being bullied, harassed, and constantly threatened with dismissal. They are yelled at and harassed. In order to meet production goals, workers are not allowed to talk to each other or take breaks, and often need to ind a replacement worker in order to take toilet breaks. Sometimes failing to meet production quotas makes managers cut bonuses, as a penalty. Since the basic wage is extremely low, workers strive to get all the additions they can, which makes any addition essential to their livelihood. Péter, their only son works as a construction worker in Germany since he is nineteen. He periodically sends money home, which helped renovate the house, a luxury they could otherwise not afford. “The factory workshop is like a sauna. I almost fainted today when I stood up to leave at the end of my shift. My doctor told me this daily oxygen deprivation generates other health problems. Sometimes an ambulance comes over to take care of the workers who faint because of the heat.” RECOMMENDATIONS TO BRANDS ! Pay a living wage, which is a human right for all. ! Act on the above-mentioned law violations. RECOMMENDATIONS TO ROMANIAN GOVERNMENT ! Increase the legal minimum wage to an amount that workers can actually live on – a living wage. ! Monitor impartially and adequately the implementation of the law and of the contractual obligations that global brands have to governments. ROMANIA 2018 4