(New York, December 3, 2025) — Workers in international fashion and home goods supply chains in Karachi are enduring severe physical, mental, and financial hardship in dangerously hot workplace conditions, while consumers and multinational brands in high-income countries continue to benefit from production models that fail to address climate risks, Climate Rights International said in a new report published today. All of the companies named in the report, with the exception of IKEA, are signatories to the International Accord for Worker Health and Safety in the Garment and Textile Industry, a legally binding agreement between garment brands and trade unions in Pakistan and Bangladesh, as well as the associated Pakistan Safety Agreement, which is currently being renegotiated before it expires on December 31. 

Using open-source research, Climate Rights International traced the factories and mills at which the hazards and abuses detailed in its report occurred to major international fashion and home goods brands sourcing from Pakistan and doing business in both U.S. and European export markets, including H&M, Inditex (Zara), GAP, MANGO, ASOS, C&A, NA-KD, NEXT, and IKEA.  [Further information about the methodology and the basis for establishing these connections is available in the full report.] Only one of the companies, NEXT, one of the UK’s most profitable retailers, told Climate Rights International that it currently has detailed heat protection guidelines for suppliers in place.  

“The fashion industry’s role in driving both overconsumption and global emissions is well-documented,” said Cara Schulte, researcher at Climate Rights International and author of the new report. “And now some of the biggest household names in fashion and home goods are fueling and then ignoring new dimensions of occupational risk brought on by climate change. These companies are effectively turning a blind eye as workers across their supply chains continue to suffer and collapse in the heat.” 

The 98-page report, “They Don’t See What Heat Does to Our Bodies”: Climate Change, Labor Rights, and the Cost of Fashion in Karachi, Pakistan, based on interviews with textile workers across Pakistan’s largest city, documents workplace exposure to dangerous levels of indoor heat, and shows how widespread labor rights violations compound these risks. Temperatures in Karachi now routinely climb past 38-40°C (100-104°F), with some areas of Sindh province recording highs above 52°C (126°F). Inside garment factories and textile mills, these extremes pose serious threats to the lives and livelihoods workers. 

Workers interviewed by Climate Rights International recalled experiencing frequent nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, muscle tremors, and injury in the heat. Many reported either having fainted themselves or having seen colleagues collapse on the job. One worker, Muhammad Hunain, reported working through outdoor temperatures as high as 45°C (113°F). In these types of extremes, he said, “You can imagine how much hotter it becomes inside, where machinery, bodies, and fabric all trap heat.” 

Despite the dangerous conditions, Climate Rights International found that factories, textile mills, and most of the brands sourcing from them do little to protect workers from extreme temperatures. As Hunain described it: “There are no fans, no cooling units, no ventilation … The workers are simply left to struggle.” 

Mir Zulfiqar Ali, a local labor rights activist and the Executive Director of the Workers’ Education and Research Organization in Pakistan, put it bluntly: “Many garment units are built like sealed boxes. The priority is to protect the product, not the people who stitch it.” 

At the same time, the investigation uncovered how widespread labor rights abuses effectively prevent workers from protecting themselves from heat-related risks. Climate Rights International documented multiple instances of forced and unpaid overtime; strict limits on recovery breaks; and inadequate access to safe drinking water and sanitation, including reports of factory water sources that were “muddy” or “too hot to touch.”  

Workers further reported fear of illegal wage deductions or other forms of retaliation for resting, refusing overtime, or slowing work pace. Hunain explained: “When I get very hot, I start sweating uncontrollably. My head begins pounding. Sometimes my vision becomes blurry. I have felt dizzy many times … when I felt like I might faint, but stopping work is not an option. If I sit down or slow down too much, the supervisors scold us, and the contractor can cut our wages.” He added: “We receive no information about heat symptoms or how to manage them. No posters, no instructions, no awareness, nothing.” 

“Though there are a number of national and provincial occupational health and safety laws that address some of these issues, they aren’t being implemented effectively,” said Schulte. “Persistent regulatory gaps, including the absence of mandatory work-to-rest ratios and maximum allowable temperature thresholds for safe work, and the lack of protections for contract workers together create a significant disconnect between legal provisions and conditions on the ground.” 

International Accord  

As rising temperatures increasingly threaten the health, safety, and livelihoods of Pakistan’s workers, companies sourcing from the country’s supply chains have a responsibility to prevent and address human rights harms, including climate-related harms, linked to their business activities.  

Climate Rights International’s findings come midway through renegotiations of the International Accord’s Pakistan Country-Specific Safety Program agreement. The Accord’s mandate has historically not recognized extreme heat as a core occupational risk. As a result, many of the abuses documented by CRI have fallen outside the scope of its binding inspection and remediation system, which has previously covered only fire, electrical, structural, and boiler safety.    

Earlier this year, CRI sent a joint letter together with 44 labor rights, climate, and sustainable fashion organizations urging the Accord’s Steering Committee to update its mandate to address climate-related workplace hazards, including extreme heat. On September 12, 2025, following a discussion that made reference to that letter, the committee appears to have affirmed during the Pakistan renegotiations that heat stress does, in fact, fall “within the scope of the [Pakistan] Accord, including for inspections and remediation,” and agreed that the Secretariat and Technical Committee will “develop a Protocol on heat stress for the matter to be tackled on a systematic and preventive basis.” If this decision is confirmed, it would be a hugely important first step.  

In response to a letter from Climate Rights International in advance of the publication of this report, the Spanish retailer MANGO agreed to support the inclusion of heat as a “defined risk” within the revised Pakistan-Country Specific Safety Program and to “actively collaborate with Accord staff and … suppliers to help ensure the proper supervision and implementation of this element within the new country program once it is renewed.” MANGO should follow through on these commitments and other brands named in this investigation and involved in the Accord should follow suit to ensure that heat is treated with the same seriousness, attention, and resources given to the Accord’s original safety pillars. At the same time, the Accord should put forth similar heat protection efforts in Bangladesh, and any other countries to which it ultimately expands.  

Fashion’s Climate Failures 

The hazards and abuses documented by Climate Rights International reflect a broader, industry-wide trend, in which global fashion and textile supply chains continue to offload climate risks onto vulnerable workers. These findings in Karachi build on Climate Rights International’s earlier investigation in Dhaka, Bangladesh, as well as research from other garment hubs across South Asia, exposing a clear and consistent pattern of workplace abuse made worse by insufficient climate protections. 

For the people laboring through unchecked workplace extremes, the fashion industry’s inaction is a daily threat. Muhammad Hunain, speaking on behalf of workers, voiced an urgent appeal: “We are not asking for luxury, just basic rights,” he said. “If the heat keeps rising every year, workers like us will suffer the most. We need fans, ventilation, fair wages, job security, and proper medical support. These are basic needs, not demands for comfort.” [A more detailed list of worker recommendations is included in the report.] 

“Workers are telling us that brands are sometimes charging as much as their month’s salary for a single article of clothing, while at the same time failing to invest in basic protections, like clean water, ventilation, and rest breaks for the people in their supply chains,” said Schulte. “The multibillion-dollar fashion industry has the capacity and resources to help their suppliers provide these things, and the coming iteration of the Pakistan Accord provides a well-timed opportunity and concrete platform through which to do it.”