What we do
Immediately after the Rana Plaza collapse of 2013, in which 1,134 workers were killed, we were involved in the establishment of the legally binding Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. This programme has been so successful in making factories safer that brands and unions decided to continue the work after its first five year mandate ran out. As witness signatories to the Accord we critically follow brands’ interaction with the Accord (see for example this report), campaign for brands to join the programme and campaign for its work to continue. Because of the Accord’s clear successes in making factories safer, unions and labour groups in other countries such as Pakistan are now looking into how the example can be adapted to national circ*mstances in other countries.
Our goal is to make sure that mass disasters like Rana Plaza will never happen again. But workplace injuries and deaths can never be entirely prevented. Therefore we want to make sure that workers receive full and fair compensation for their medical costs, loss of income, and pain and suffering if they do get injured on the job. Governments, brands, retailers and employers must all take their responsibility. In the cases of the mass disasters at Ali Enterprises, Tazreen and Rana Plaza we have fought long struggles to make sure that brands pay into funds to provide compensation to affected families. This is particularly important in absence of national social security systems that live up to international standards. In Bangladesh, we are therefore advocating for the establishment of a national employment injury insurance scheme.
Many dangerous practices in garment factories are hidden deep in supply chains. Brands should be aware about these potential violations, actively address them and allow workers and activists to help in this process by making their supply chains more transparent. The solution starts with awareness and the willingness to address problems. An example is our campaign again sandblasting, which led to over forty brands pledging to eliminate sandblasting from their supply chains. Eventually promises however are not enough; the most pressing problems in global supply chains should be addressed through enforceable agreements through which brands make themselves legally accountable to improve safety in their supply chain.
