Little has changed since Bangladesh factory collapsed
The country is a long way from meeting its commitments to international labour standards
The timing seems off.
Could it be that just three years have passed since the Rana Plaza disaster? Yet Sunday marks this “anniversary,” a word that sounds celebratory and thus inappropriate.
It seems longer ago that we were struck numb by images of the collapsed Bangladesh garment factory, illegally stacked floor upon floor until it fell in a blast, taking the lives of more than 1,100 workers who had been eking out penny wages as cutters and sewers. What has changed? Phil Robertson, deputy director for the Asia division of Human Rights Watch (HRW), shoots an email from his perch in Bangkok: “On the day of the Rana Plaza collapse, workers saw the cracks in the walls and didn’t want to go to work but they were forced to by threats by supervisors to fire them.” We remember. And then the generator rumbled. And then. “The problem is Bangladesh’s government is of the factory owners, by the factory owners, for the factory owners — and workers face intimidation, sexual harassment, long hours with low pay, and hazardous and dangerous working conditions. That needs to change and Canadian officials and consumers should be demanding that.” Are we? Demanding that? Last week, HRW released a report with the chilling title “Whoever Raises Their Head Suffers the Most.”
“Violations of workers’ rights were a problem in nearly all of the factories.” HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH IN A REPORT RELEASED LAST WEEK
Drawing on interviews with 160 workers at 44 factories between October, 2013, and April of last year, the report documents a long list of worker abuse that, sadly, does not surprise.
“Violations of workers’ rights were a problem in nearly all of the factories and included practices contrary to both national Bangladeshi law and codes of conduct that western retailers insist, often in production contracts, that their suppliers follow,” the report states.
Unpaid wages, delayed wages, forced overtime, unattainable production targets, unsanitary conditions, physical and sexual abuse, dismissal of union leaders and the suppression of attempts to form unions.
A union treasurer recounted: “I was beaten with metal curtain rods in February when I was pregnant. I was called to the chairman’s room, and taken to the 3rd floor management room which is used by the management and directors — and there I was beaten by the local goons. . . . There were other women who were called at other times, and they were beaten the same way as well. They wanted to force me to sign on a blank piece of paper, and when I refused, that was when they started beating me. They were threatening me saying ‘You need to stop doing the union activities in the factory, why did you try and form the union. You need to sign this paper.’ ”
She was fired and not paid the full wages she was owed.
According to HRW, only about 10 per cent of the more than 4,500 garment factories in Bangladesh have registered unions. The country is a long way from meeting its commitments under the Sustainability Compact it signed with the European Union and the International Labour Organization three months after Rana Plaza collapsed.
A chief objective of the sustainability compact was and remains to pull Bangladesh in line with international labour standards.
In January, the compact partners emphasized the need to adopt legislative changes to protect freedom of association and collective bargaining. HRW calls upon Canada, along with the United States and the European Union, to “ensure that the Bangladesh government publicly announces time-bound commitments to revise its labour laws and rules.”
All of this may leave concerned consumers wondering, is it OK to buy that T-shirt?
The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, both created in the wake of the catastrophe, report results of their factory safety audits.
Aggregate data shows, for example, that more than 1,200 factories inspected by the Accord are behind schedule in remediating infractions that include locked doors, an absence of fire doors, etc.
Suspensions are reported by name, so you can see that last month M/S Mega Chois Knitwear Ltd. was deemed a non-compliant supplier by the Accord and thereby ineligible to produce for any signatory firms. (The six story building, which employs 600, has but a single exit on each floor and a daycare on top.)
There is no cross referencing to apparel and footwear brands, however. Human Rights Watch takes the position, as should investors, that all global brands fully disclose their supply chain and pledge to work with those factories “to ensure they comply with international standards for workers’ basic rights.”
Such an initiative sounds very 2016.
Loblaws (Joe Fresh) is a signatory to the Accord. Canadian Tire and Hudson’s Bay are signatories to the Alliance.
The issue of worker rights in garment producing regions will only grow. The absence of independent trade unions in Vietnam, a signatory to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and a contentious newly passed labour law in Cambodia underscore that Bangladesh is only part of the problem. Both Cambodia and Vietnam are significant players in garment and footwear exports to Canada, churning out pretty spring wear, at unlivable wages, for Canadian consumers. A reminder that three years after Rana Plaza, there’s a world of work left to do. Jennifer Wells’s column appears Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. jenwells@thestar.ca