Independent evaluation of the ILO’s strategy for Technical ...
A Safe Workplace Can the ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia Program Benefit Bangladesh’s Dangerous...
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Transcript of A Safe Workplace Can the ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia Program Benefit Bangladesh’s Dangerous...
![Page 1: A Safe Workplace Can the ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia Program Benefit Bangladesh’s Dangerous Garment Factories? Can the ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062221/56649cf55503460f949c476f/html5/thumbnails/1.jpg)
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?
![Page 2: A Safe Workplace Can the ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia Program Benefit Bangladesh’s Dangerous Garment Factories? Can the ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia.](https://reader035.fdocuments.in/reader035/viewer/2022062221/56649cf55503460f949c476f/html5/thumbnails/2.jpg)
Corporate Social Responsibility
• Codes of conduct
• International labor standards
• Compliance determined by auditing and monitoring programs
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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”)
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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’
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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.
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Reasons for repeated fatal accidents in garment factories
• Inadequate auditing and monitoring programs
• Poor infrastructure
• Unchecked building standards
• Insufficient safety arrangements
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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
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"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
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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
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“Came to work alive; don't want to go home a corpse.”
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• 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)
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• 74 workers buried alive
• Built on marshland
• Four-floor building approved
• Nine-floor building was built
Spectrum Factory collapse April 2005
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Responsibility
• International brands – ALL companies in the garment supply chain
• Bangladesh Government
• World Trade Organization
• Bangladesh garment industry
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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
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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
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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
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Bangladesh garment industry
• Conflicting interests
• Impotent monitoring program due to a lack of manpower
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association
(BGMEA)
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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
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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.”
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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.