Most global brands now feel obliged to improve safety, labour rights

FE Team | Published: May 29, 2013 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

Nizam Ahmed Most global brands believe that they are obliged to help Bangladesh improve safety standards and protect labour rights in garment factories of the country. The brands have started feeling like this after Bangladesh was shaken by severe shock following an unprecedented industrial mishap last month, traders and observers said. But the brands are still debating among themselves to find out a best way for assisting Bangladesh, the second largest ready-made garment supplier of the world after China, they said. The garment industry in Bangladesh has been in dire straits after the collapse of Rana Plaza at Savar, which killed 1,129 garment workers and disabled scores physically. The debate ensued as some 30 leading brands in Europe signed a legally-binding accord pact this month to assist the garment sector of the country while most brands in the United States (US), Canada and Japan differed on the pact. However, among US companies Abercombie & Fitch and PVC Corp, whose brands include Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, have signed the legally binding pact, according to western media reports. The legally binding agreement known as 'Bangladesh accord' is aimed at increasing transparency of inspections and compliance in the thriving garment sector of the South Asian country. However, the others, which do not want to sign the pact, however, agree that the garment factories of Bangladesh need buyers' help in improving safety standards and labour rights in the country. They say individual buyers can and should assist the factories in Bangladesh from where they buy their merchandise. So they feel that it is not necessary to sign a binding pact. Uniqlo, a Japanese clothing brand owned by Fast Retailing, announced on Monday that it won't join a legally-binding pact to improve safety conditions in Bangladesh. The latest announcement of Uniqlo, which has prominent outlets in New York, has put more weight to an earlier decision taken by well-known American brands including Walmart, JC Penny, Sears, and the Gap, which earlier said they won't sign the legally binding pacts sponsored mostly by European brands. However, Uniqlo suggested that the global retailers need to finance and support some basic safety measures and improve workers' rights in the garment factories in Bangladesh. It said the legally binding pact designed to put pressure on factory owners to improve safety standards may not yield a good result as the factory owners having a cozy relationship with the government, can evade responsibilities. Fast Retailing, announcing not to sign the pact, pledged to improve conditions independently in Bangladesh factories, which produce garments for it, without a legal agreement standing in the way. "We want to first focus on what we can do right now, on our own," Washington-based business online news portal The Atlantic Wire quoted Fast Retailing head Yukihiro Nitta, as saying. Mr Yukihiro said his firm would also engage a Japanese company to assess the soundness of Bangladesh factories which supplied their products to his firm. However, he did not say how many garment factories in Bangladesh used to provide supplies to his firm, said a report of The Wall Street Journal, published on Monday. For ascertaining soundness of factory buildings, ultrasound and X-ray technology can be used to check cracks in concrete and piping and to analyse construction materials used, he told the business newswire. However, the Uniqlo left open the option of joining the pact later once an implementation plan is drafted. The vast majority of Uniqlo clothes come from China, and the company earlier before the Bangladesh building collapse had been mulling to increase its volume of imports from Bangladesh. Fast Retailing is Asia's biggest fashion retailer in terms of revenue and the fourth-largest in the world, after market leader Inditex SA, Hennes & Mauritz AB and Gap Inc. Fast Retailing's biggest rivals, Sweden's H&M and Spain's Inditex, owner of the Zara brand, said earlier this month that they would sign a legally binding accord on fire and building safety. Uniqlo is probably best-known in New York, where their ads are found everywhere. But the company's decision mirrors many well-known American brands, including Walmart, JC Penny, Sears, and the Gap. However, the latest support expressed by the US saying western brands which buy clothes from Bangladesh have a "critical role" in improving conditions in the sector, is likely to encourage the buyers to come up largely to support the sector in the country, traders in Bangladesh said. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman while visiting Dhaka on Monday also urged the Bangladesh government to learn lessons from the Savar building collapse.