Why Are These Fashion Brands Not Committed?

After more than 1100 deaths in 2013 exposed the dangerous labor environment in Bangladesh, many companies promised to improve the safety of some of the poorest workers in the country. H&M, WAL-MART and Gap were among the most powerful.

But the human rights organization says three years later, these commitments remain unfulfilled, and security, labour and other issues are still lingering in Bangladesh and other global retail giants who enjoy the benefits of cheap labor.

A series of newly released reports from the Union and other research and advocacy groups, the the Asia Floor Wage Alliance, have revealed new information about the situation.

The organization says tens of thousands of workers in Bangladesh are sewing in buildings without fire safety passages.

。

In Indonesia, India and other countries, pregnant women are prone to pay cuts and discrimination.

In Kampuchea, workers demanding an extra 20 dollars in wages per month died at gunpoint.

Relevant

In recent years, it has been actively promoting labor protection and greatly improving the monitoring of OEM factories.

They also carried out substantial structural repair and fire maintenance in many factories in Bangladesh.

But even those retail companies themselves admit that further improvements are needed, and this is also a message from a series of recent reports mentioned above.

Workers' rights advocates say progress in improving factory conditions is slow. The biggest companies in the world are still enjoying the benefits of unfair and dangerous employment practices.

"A lot of safety repairs have been carried out in factories, and there is no doubt that the safety of these factories has been greatly improved."

Scott Nova, executive director of Worker Rights Consortium, a labour monitoring group, commented on Bangladesh's work. "But at the same time, there is also an unacceptable delay, which is also a fact." Scott said.

On Tuesday, the minimum wage union released the latest report, accusing WAL-MART of enjoying the benefits of forced labor and other irregularities in several Asian countries.

For example, in Kampuchea, workers are required to work in hot factories for 10 to 14 hours a day, producing products sold in WAL-MART.

But there is no clean drinking water and no rest in the middle.

The report says workers who refuse or try to speak for themselves may face the risk of being fired.

In a statement, WAL-MART said its supplier standards "specifically deal with working hours, rest breaks, nurturing a safe, healthy working environment and freedom of association".

The retail companies claims that it does not own or operate any facilities in Kampuchea or Bangladesh, but expects suppliers to "adhere to these standards in the foundry factory".

The timing of the latest results of the minimum wage union is on the eve of next Monday's the International Labour Conference in Geneva.

In May, the group also released a report detailing sexual harassment, low wages and other irregularities in H&M supplier factories.

Anannya Bhattacharjee, the international coordinator of the minimum wage alliance, also said that such dangers in Bangladesh factories still exist, and more than 1100 workers were killed in the accident of Rana square in the country, becoming one of the most serious industrial disasters in the history of casualties in the Anaya Batajackie.

Bata Cha Ji said: "at present, we do not see that H&M is moving towards avoiding another direction in the Rana square accident."

H&M said in a statement that the challenge outlined in the report is an "industry" issue.

"This report presents important issues. We have been committed to promoting positive long-term development in our textile market."

The company said, "H&M has been actively helping the textile industry workers for many years and will continue to do so in the future."

Factories in many developing countries are now under tremendous pressure and need to produce billions of dollars worth of goods at low cost, so that they can win the competition for foreign companies.

{page_break}

H&M's sales last year were as high as 25 billion US dollars. It is one of the biggest beneficiaries of so-called fast fashion, relying on factories in many countries to help quickly update its clothing to the market.

WAL-MART, the largest retailer in the US, has created a huge business by relying on cheap goods.

But the collapse of Rana square has raised another question about how the appetite of cheap products has affected the most vulnerable workers in the world.

For example, in order to reduce the selling price of a T-shirt to US $5, what costs should we cut down?

After the collapse of Rana Plaza, two European retailers and US brand retailers have committed themselves to five years of regular inspections, repairs and other corrective measures to improve Bangladesh's working conditions.

It is widely believed that the The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, led by the Swedish retail companies H&M, is more powerful because the agreement contains a legally binding arbitration clause to solve the labor dispute.

Another group, namely, the the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, including Gap and WAL-MART, has no similar provisions, can not impose economic penalties on the violating members, and has no right to drive them out of the alliance.

The two groups claim to have made progress.

According to a spokesperson Juris Odenzil (Joris Oldenziel), 60% of the 108 thousand problems found in about 1600 factories covered by the agreement have been corrected or reported.

According to the Bangladesh labor safety alliance website, more than half of the more than 600 problems in production factories have been corrected.

James Moriarty, James F.Moriarty, the alliance's national director, said that the "safety" of the alliance has changed greatly.

But the two retail alliances acknowledge that progress has been slow.

According to the website of the Bangladesh fire and construction safety agreement, nearly 1400 corrective action plans fall behind the plan in the factories covered by the agreement.

Moriarty said that political instability and lack of qualified engineers are all factors contributing to the delay.

A common problem is fire safety.

The alliance says fire escaping doors that can withstand high temperatures for a certain period of time are not common in Bangladesh and need to be imported.

This escape door can isolate the flames and block the flames and smoke outside the staircase.

At the time of the collapse of Rana square, the fire at Tazreen Fashions, which killed 112 Bangladesh workers, has just been in the past few months.

According to the minimum wage Union data, as of 2015, nearly 79 thousand workers still made clothing for H&M in buildings without proper fire safety passages in Bangladesh.

Scott Novartis of the workers' Rights Association said: "it is extremely irresponsible to arrange thousands of workers in buildings without fire safety passageways."

Building safety is only one of the problems that must be solved in Bangladesh and other regions by human rights organizations and labor rights advocacy groups.

For example, the minimum wage Union's report on Gap points out the current conditions of the sweatshop of a retailer, and workers are often forced to work for more than 100 hours per week with the wage level of poverty line.

Gap spokesman Laura Wilkinson (Laura Wilkinson) said in a statement that the company, including workers, trade unions, government and non-governmental organizations, and the "wide range of stakeholders" have cooperated to improve the conditions for the production of Gap garments.

She pointed out that the company's Code of Vendor Conduct requires wages paid to workers either to meet the statutory minimum wage or to meet local industry standards.

Behavior standards also said that "encourage" factories to pay wages in full, so that workers can solve basic needs, but also have a portion of discretionary income.

Gap said the company is equipped with about 70 local staff to help implement the company's standards in countries producing Gap products.

The commitments of the two retail alliances will expire in 2018.

Labor rights advocacy groups doubt whether H&M can deliver on their commitments made in 2013.

Nat Sue (Nath Sou) said: "they promise to improve our lives, but we still have not enough pay and the working environment is not good enough."

She is 39 years old and works in a clothing factory for H&M in Kampuchea near Phnom Penh.

She said she could get 140 dollars a month, and had to borrow enough money to pay rent and support her family.

Nat Su said that if he joined a trade union or protested, he might be fired.

"We don't see anyone or any company that can make us live better," she said.