June 19, 2013

How many more deaths will it take to convince North American companies to get serious about worker safety in their Bangladeshi supplier factories?

In our lead article in this issue of the Update, we profile the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a groundbreaking agreement signed by over 40 major retailers and brands that could make Bangladeshi garment factories a lot safer for the workers who make their products.

Unlike most voluntary corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, the Accord will give workers and local trade unions an active role in its implementation, including participation in workplace health and safety committees, the right to file complaints and the right to refuse unsafe work.

Most important, the Accord is a legally binding agreement, and not a voluntary code of conduct. As such, it represents a new stage in more than 20 years of efforts to hold apparel and sportswear companies accountable for labour practices in global supply chains.

The death of over 1,100 workers in the April 24 Rana Plaza building collapse was no accident. Everyone knew, or should have known, that the building was unsafe – workers employed in the five factories housed in the illegal eight-story building, factory managers, building inspectors, government officials, the Rana Plaza owner, and the brands whose factory audits failed to detect any problem.

According to one young woman who survived and was pulled from the rubble, workers had been afraid to enter the building the morning of its collapse, but the managers had ordered them to go to work because they had to meet order deadlines, and had threatened not to pay them if they refused.

The Rana Plaza tragedy should have been a wakeup call to apparel brands that set the price and order deadlines. More of the same voluntary, company-controlled factory audits cannot address the structural and fire safety hazards endemic to the Bangladeshi industry.
Unfortunately, most North American companies have not heeded that call. Only four have thus far signed the Accord, and some are in fact actively working to undermine it.

Gap and Walmart, for example, are attempting to launch an alternative, non-binding initiative that excludes trade union and labour rights groups and – if it gets off the ground — will likely translate into more of the same secretive and notoriously unreliable factory auditing and inspection approaches that have repeatedly failed Bangladeshi workers and resulted in thousands of lives lost and even more workers who will never be able to work again.

That apparel brands should be held accountable for labour rights and worker safety in the supplier factories to the same legal standard and liability that they are held accountable for any business contract represents the new bottom line for corporate social responsibility. Vague promises and voluntary initiatives just don’t cut it after Rana. 

Lynda Yanz
for the MSN team