As the three-day Sustainability Compact Review in Dhaka concluded Friday — the second meeting since the compact was initiated in July 2013 — there was clear acknowledgement that important steps had been achieved in terms of worker safety. But it was equally clear that global stakeholders still want more — a lot more — in terms of workers’ rights.
Michael J. Delaney, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative for South and Central Asia, Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, who led the U.S. delegation said the “remarkable progress” in terms of workplace safety, fire, remediation, electrical and structural safety was “undisputed,” but that less progress had been made in workers’ rights and trade union registration.
The U.S. delegation included Michael O’Donovan, director for Labor Affairs, Office of the USTR; Sarah Fox, special representative for International Labor Affairs, U.S. Department of State; Bruce Levine, director of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, and Eric Biel, associate deputy undersecretary, International Labor Affairs Bureau, U.S. Department of Labor.
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The concern over worker safety and rights has been causing disquiet across the world after the collapse of the eight-story Rana Plaza building in April 2013. More than 1,100 workers lost their lives. In November 2012, more than 100 garment workers died in a fire at a factory in Ashulia.
The Sustainability Compact was launched after the Rana Plaza tragedy, with the European Union, the Bangladesh government, the International Labor Organization and other global stakeholders outlining a series of important measures to be addressed to improve the situation.
There are more than four million workers employed in the nation’s apparel industry. Bangladesh is the second-largest exporter of ready-made garments in the world, with exports of $24.5 billion in 2015.
This week, Canada joined the compact for the first time.
“This is the right time to join,” said Benoît-Pierre Laramée, the Canadian High Commissioner in Bangladesh. He said Canadians wanted to be assured that the clothes they wear were made in fair and safe working environments.
The meeting was hosted by the government of Bangladesh. The three-day meeting took stock of the progress achieved and looked into future next steps, as well as offered a session for interested stakeholders.
Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed said there was a general consensus at the meeting. “Nobody differed on the progress,” he observed.
He also brought up a concern voiced by both garment factory owners and trade union leaders in recent months — on increasing the buyers’ price for the apparel. “We have urged the international retailers and brands to increase the prices for garment items so that the garment makers can spend more money for factory remediation and for safety purposes,” he said.
The point was echoed by several Bangladesh trade union leaders, including Nazma Akhter, founder of the trade union Sommilito Garments Sramik Federation, who stressed the need for buyers to increase product prices as well as increasing wages for the workers. She also brought up the need for safety committees in every factory as well as trade unions in the export processing zones.
The concern over trade unions in the export processing zones was reiterated by several global participants. Although Bangladesh labor law has been amended to allow the formation of trade unions in garment factories, export processing zones are exempt from these rules.
Addressing this issue, Mikail Shipar, Bangladesh’s labor secretary, said the primary focus so far had been on safety issues, and that the government would “look into the labor issues on a priority basis.”
The issue of trade unions in the export processing zones would continue to remain separate, with worker welfare associations being allowed, instead of trade unions, he said. “We have made a commitment to the foreign investors and can’t allow traditional trade unions in EPZs,” he said, adding that these associations had the same function as trade unions.
Dan Cunniah, special adviser to the ILO, noted that union registration was slower last year and recommended genuine workers participation in the safety committee in factories without any interference, in an atmosphere of trust. While lauding the Bangladesh government on its efforts to achieve objectives, he said issues like labor rights and freedom of association, including in the factories inside the export promotion zones, still needed to be addressed. “The registration of trade unions should be made simpler and the labor abuse should be stopped,” he said.
Addressing some of these concerns, Shipar said a lot had been done in this regard over the last two years — the office of chief inspector had been upgraded to a full-fledged department, and had recruited 200 additional inspectors. The labor law had been amended, and safety committees in factories had been made mandatory. While there had only been 132 unions in Bangladesh before 2013, there were 473 unions by November 2015.
Global rights groups such as the International Trade Union Confederation, IndustriALL Global Union and Uni Global Union have issued strong statements criticizing the Bangladesh government for not having sufficient measures to meet the requirements of the compact. An evaluation by the three unions just ahead of ahead of the Sustainability Compact review on Wednesday condemned a “severe climate of antiunion violence in Bangladesh, frequently directed by company management, with the perpetrators of the crimes having near total impunity.
“Far too much remains to be done by the government of Bangladesh and the garment industry, not only to ensure fire and building safety but to simply guarantee basic respect for the law — including both national and international labor standards,” the report noted, adding that it was aware of “more than 100 cases of antiunion discrimination in factories where new trade unions have been registered” and criticizing the Bangladesh government for failing to guarantee freedom of association.
The global unions called on the European Union to use its preferential trade scheme — GSP — with Bangladesh to secure meaningful and immediate improvements. The EU accounts for about 60 percent of the country’s total apparel exports.
Another important issue facing the industry at this time is that of factory remediation. Inspections of the majority of the 3,500 garment factories have been completed by local teams, along with the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, two groups of global brands and retailers. The process of fixing the factories still has a long way to go and is a major area of concern, especially in terms of the funds needed for fixing factories.
“On an average, a factory needs to invest 50 million takas [about $625,000 at current exchange] for remediation, which is a difficult task, especially for small and medium units, and majority of the apparel factories are of such category,” Siddiqur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, said at a press conference just ahead of the Sustainability Compact review meeting.
“We are improving the workplace safety and complying with labor rights, not because of pressure but to ensure workers’ safety, investment and achieving our $50 billion export target by 2021,” he said.
While factory owners reiterated the need for more funds for fixing factories, global stakeholders noted that these funds were being made available to help the situation. Pierre Mayaudon, ambassador and the head of delegation of the EU in Bangladesh, said the government needed to come forward with policy support for using a $200 million soft loan that was ready for factory remediation.