Workers rights groups are calling on retailers to use a legally binding deal to improve safety for clothes factory workers in Bangladesh as a blueprint for
tackling similar problems elsewhere, reports Guardian.
IndustriALL, the international union group which is backing the deal between textile workers and more than 70 retailers to tackle fire safety and building security in Bangladesh, said it had already begun work to build a similar agreement in Pakistan. It comes amid evidence that workers in Pakistan and China face greater workplace risks than those in Bangladesh.
Retailers including Primark, Marks & Spencer and H&M agreed to independent factory inspections and action to improve manufacturers’ buildings in Bangladesh after the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in April killed more than 1,100 people.
Jyrki Raina, general secretary of IndustriALL, said many of those retailers also produced goods in Pakistan and could sign up to a second deal. ‘The strategy of working through the global supply chain does work and should be a blueprint for countries beyond Bangladesh,’ he said.
Raina believes the Bangladeshi deal, on which talks had started two years before the Rana Plaza collapse put it in the spotlight, was likely to be effective because retailers had promised funds for factory inspections, changes and rebuilding, and faced legal repercussions if they did not co-operate.
Bangladesh, however, is ranked only the 17th-worst country on a labour rights and protection index put together by global risk consultancy Maplecroft and referred to by major retailers around the world. The index takes into account factors including working conditions, the prevalence of forced or child labour and the freedom to form unions.
Pakistan and China are ranked respectively third- and fourth-worst places to work on the index, behind the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burma.
More than half of clothing factories inspected in Bangladesh and Pakistan failed to meet fire safety standards, according to Sedex, a not for profit group that compiles ethical audit data for companies to monitor their supply chain.
Other countries did not fare much better. More than 40 per cent of clothing factories in China, India and Turkey, all major producers of clothing for shops in the UK and elsewhere, failed fire safety inspections.
-With New Age input
