Ramazan is a month of many barkatein, however these barkats, it seems, are falling on everyone but the people at Khaadi. The past few weeks have been marred by a through and through PR tragedy for the brand.
For the past few weeks Khaadi has become the center of a controversy over labor issues in their factory, leading to a larger discussion over labor rights
Khaadi has been accused of mistreating it’s employees and going as far as to fire 32 workers, for trying to form unions within their factories.
Working condition in #Khaadi. Factory gatewas closed for 32 workers. 124 more workers' job is on risk as all were veryactive in unionization pic.twitter.com/wT6H4sFrrA
— Zehra (@zehra1akhan) May 25, 2017
Once this news spread to the Internet, it was all pretty much downhill for the brand. There were protests outside their main branches in Karachi and Lahore almost immediately.
Matters got worse as people chose to #BoycottKhaadi, which is extremely detrimental for them considering it is almost Eid season.
Khaadi, on the other hand, denied all accusations and branded the rumors as false and baseless only ‘meant to damage their reputation’.
Soon enough, Khaadi sat down with the workers and their unions and agreed to provide better working conditions and minimum wage for their factory employees.
This ‘agreement’ in itself was confusing, especially considering this whole situation was ‘false’ according to Khaadi.
However in recent developments, it seems as though Khaadi is denying its workers their rights (under the agreement they signed) by claiming that these employees work for their third party vendor ‘Texmark’ therefore do not fall under the ambit of the signed agreement.
Express Tribune suggests that this company is actually a front for the brand, and is, in fact, Khaadi trying to save face given the backlash over the labor mismanagement issue.
Great news: #Khaadi brought to its knees and has agreed to all demands put forward by its workers!
Power to the people!! pic.twitter.com/wQ4kGFCKVP— Fawad Hasan (@FawadHazan) June 6, 2017
In the midst of all this madness, Khaadi had a sale in Islamabad
The Khaadi in Giga Mall (Islamabad) announced an opening sale, and people did not disappoint Khaadi. They turned up, really big.
This was basically people’s reaction to the Khaadi sale.
So Khaadi had a sale today. Nice.
— Shumail (@Shumyl) June 10, 2017
Oh wow, such boycott.
People boycotting #Khaadi
35% sale and we have lost it. pic.twitter.com/dlabSPaYih— Kamran Yusuf (@KamranUsuf) June 10, 2017
The turnout was impressive, to say the least.
#KhaadiSale #AboutToday #GigaMallIslamabad pic.twitter.com/6wVmm4ezK4
— Nida chaudhary (@Nida436) June 10, 2017
Yup, this sounds about right.
Got pushed for the 7854632th time at the Khaadi sale.
— Anza (@AnzaIftikhar) June 10, 2017
Nothing has really seemed to change.
Just saw women push the guard to gain entry from the exit side at a khaadi sale (35% off). Like there's no tomorrow
— Noor (@NoorRathore) June 11, 2017
However this person is asking the right question.
There's a Sale at Khaadi today.
Irrelevant but where can I buy a bulk-load of Kerosene from?
— Buffetkhor (@MyDixonCider) June 10, 2017
This Khaadi sale just goes to show how brand loyalty works with people, despite whatever controversies happen otherwise. It’s not just about Khaadi, most big brands that currently exist in Pakistan, whatever industry they are in, command the loyalty of their clients in such a way that issues around labor rights that do come up usually are swept under the carpet, rather swiftly. Then again, it’s also Eid season.