In the wake of the worst ever building collapse in Savar that killed over 400 hundred garment workers and injured hundreds of others, some Western retailers doing business with Bangladesh moved quickly to address their public concerns about the working conditions in the country, reports the New York Times. In an article published in the digital edition of the newspaper on Wednesday, Steven Greenhouse wrote: “Benetton repeatedly revised its accounts of goods produced at one of the factories, while officials at Gap, the Children’s Place and other retailers huddled to figure out how to improve conditions, and some debated whether to remain in Bangladesh at all.”
At least one big American company, however, had already decided to leave the country — pushed by the last devastating disaster, a fire just six months ago that killed 112 people.
The Walt Disney Company, considered the world’s largest licenser with sales of nearly $40 billion, in March ordered an end to the production of branded merchandise in Bangladesh. A Disney official told The New York Times on Wednesday that the company had sent a letter to thousands of licensees and vendors on March 4 setting out new rules for overseas production.
Less than 1 percent of the factories used by Disney’s contractors are in Bangladesh, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
-with The Independent input
