Frayed social safety: Social networks, stigma, and COVID-19 – The case of Sri Lankan garment workers

Abstract

Sri Lankan garment workers have navigated a terrain where their initial status as stigmatized labour were re-casted as empowered workers through various industry-led initiatives in the recent past. Rearticulation from disposable to empowered workers, however, did not rest upon living wages or a hike in wage packets; instead, various management interpellations were attempted onsite and offsite factories. Without a material basis for these initiatives in the pre-CoVID-19 period, the vacuity of these tropes became particularly evident during the pandemic. Workers had to come to terms with shabby social support and stigma that worsened their economic lives, with tattered social safety systems compelling labour rights organizations and kin to step up. Using worker testimonies, I speak to the politics of empowerment to underline how the recasting of workers as stigmatized resulted in the cost of social reproduction to borne by kin networks and labour activists too. These frayed social safety nets and public support continue to echo against the country’s worst economic crisis.

Tenacity Besides Depletion: Pandemics, Protests, and Workers from the Sri Lankan Apparel Sector

“…A COVID‐19 cluster in a leading factory caused community transition, with adverse publicity continuing and the absence of living wages emerging to the forefront (AWFA 2021; Hoskins et al. 2021; Munasinghe 2020; Ruwanpura 2022b, 2023).…”

“…In 2011 efforts by the government, under the aegis of the World Bank and IMF, to privatise pension funds came to a grinding halt when workers took to the streets to protest (Ruwanpura 2013; Women's Centre 2011). Recurrently there have been attempts to codify multiple labour laws under one umbrella law that was not just heedless of the process but also an attempt to make hiring and firing easier (Ruwanpura 2022b, 2023).…”

“…Feminist contributions help us appreciate how the Sri Lankan apparel sector came apart during the pandemic: a moment of amplified dis/articulation. Despite tropes of empowerment mobilised by industrialists, the valuation of workers and their wage packets never kept pace with inflation (Goger 2013b; Jenkins 2024; Ruwanpura 2022b, 2023). This came to haunt Sri Lankan apparel during the pandemic, with the veneer of ethical production undone (Goger 2013a; Gunawardana and Padmasiri 2021; Ruwanpura 2022a, 2023; Wickramasingha 2023).…”

“…Despite tropes of empowerment mobilised by industrialists, the valuation of workers and their wage packets never kept pace with inflation (Goger 2013b; Jenkins 2024; Ruwanpura 2022b, 2023). This came to haunt Sri Lankan apparel during the pandemic, with the veneer of ethical production undone (Goger 2013a; Gunawardana and Padmasiri 2021; Ruwanpura 2022a, 2023; Wickramasingha 2023). With dwindling wages, the depletion of workers became obvious, yet they also tenaciously claimed their rights.…”

“…Despite favourable headlines, Sri Lankan garment workers were struggling (Hoskins et al. 2021; Ruwanpura 2022a, 2023; Wickramasingha and De Neve 2022). The lack of living wages from prior periods meant workers experienced a rapid deterioration in their working lives with depletion ever present during the pandemic, and with the debt crisis and hyperinflation worsening their precarious lives.…”