A Safe Workplace Can the ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia Program Benefit Bangladesh’s Dangerous...

A Safe Workplace

A Safe Workplace

Can the ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia Program Benefit Bangladesh’s Dangerous Garment Factories?

Can the ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia Program Benefit Bangladesh’s Dangerous Garment Factories?

Corporate Social Responsibility

• Codes of conduct

• International labor standards

• Compliance determined by auditing and monitoring programs

Protecting Labor Rights Through Trade Agreements

• 1999 U.S.-Cambodia Bilateral Textile Trade Agreement

• ILO conducts factory monitoring

• “Real inroads have been made but there is still room to

improve.”

www.betterfactories.org

“Garment Sector Working Conditions Improvement Project”

(currently known as “Better Factories Cambodia”)

Bangladesh

• Densely populated - 150 million people

• Garment industry is relatively young but it is the source of 76% of Bangladesh’s exports

• 2 million garment workers – 85% are women

• Among the lowest paid in the world

• Face opposition for their right to unionize

• Hazardous conditions are ‘normal’

Problem Statement

• In the last five years, at least 172 Bangladesh garment factory workers died as a result of hazardous working conditions.

• Even with elaborate labor laws, foreign company audits and national monitoring programs, the Bangladesh garment industry is considered one of the most dangerous industries in the world.

Reasons for repeated fatal accidents in garment factories

• Inadequate auditing and monitoring programs

• Poor infrastructure

• Unchecked building standards

• Insufficient safety arrangements

Garib & Garib Sweater Factory February 25, 2010

• 21 workers died

• Exits were locked

• Materials blocked stairways

• The factory’s fire equipment was useless • Security guards did know how to operate fire extinguishers

"Everyone who worked on the top floor died, because the exits were locked. All of them were women. They were trapped

and they suffocated.”

Survivors of the Garib & Garib fire

Garib & Garib . . . again

• Factory closed after March fire

• Re-opened April 1, 2010

• Another fire on April 13, 2010 1 death, 10 injured

• 3rd fire in less than 2 years

“Came to work alive; don't want to go home a corpse.”

• 21 killed at Garib and Garib Factory, Gazipur, 2010

• 62 killed at KTS Garments, Chittagong, 2006

• 23 killed at Shan Knitting, Narayanganj, 2005

• 74 killed at Spectrum Sweater, Dhaka, 2005

• 23 killed at Chowdhury Knitwear, Narsingdi, 2004

• 23 killed at Macro Sweater, Dhaka, 2000

• 12 killed at Globe Knitting, Dhaka, 2000

• 24 killed at Shanghai Apparels, Dhaka, 1997

• 20 killed at Jahanara Fashion, Narayanganj, 1997

• 22 killed at Lusaka Garments, Dhaka, 1996

• 32 killed at Saraka Garments, Dhaka, 1990

Garment Industry Deaths since 1990

(Source: The Daily Star, March 1, 2010)

• 74 workers buried alive

• Built on marshland

• Four-floor building approved

• Nine-floor building was built

Spectrum Factory collapse April 2005

Responsibility

• International brands – ALL companies in the garment supply chain

• Bangladesh Government

• World Trade Organization

• Bangladesh garment industry

International brands

• Compliance is not enforced to keep business going

• Fails to detect day-to-day issues

• Workers should but are not involved in the process

• Audits should be more transparent and accountable to workers

Bangladesh government

• Extensive national labor rights policies pertaining to occupational safety and health in place; no enforcement

• Party to various ILO conventions; but they are not implemented

The World Trade Organization

• Lacks consideration of the link between trade and the conditions under which goods are manufactured

• Workers would enjoy more protection if the WTO recognized such provisions

Bangladesh garment industry

• Conflicting interests

• Impotent monitoring program due to a lack of manpower

Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association

(BGMEA)

Laws being violated

• Various ILO Conventions C29 Forced Labour Convention, 1930C81 Labour Inspection Convention, 1947 C89 Night Work (Women) Convention (Revised), 1948

• Bangladesh Labor Laws 1996 Part 3: Occupational Health, Safety and Welfare

• Bangladesh Factory Act of 1965 Chapter III Health and HygieneChapter IV Safety

Proposed Solution

• The basic premise established in Better Factories Cambodia could offer Bangladesh the best way forward.

• “ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia program, has been more beneficial to workers than any anti-sweatshop campaign.”

Venue of Discussion

• Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC)

The CCC is a network of coalitions that aim to improve working conditions in the global garment and sportswear industries.

The organization has been calling for a review of all Bangladeshi garment factories since 2000.

• The International Labor Organization

In collaboration with CCC, a letter to the ILO, suggesting a program based on Better Factories Cambodia.