Sustainability Compact partners have urged brands and buyers to adopt practices that promote responsible business conduct in global supply chain and introduce uniform code of conduct for factory audit in Bangladesh.
They made the call at a joint statement from a media briefing after the second review meeting of the compact held in Dhaka yesterday where all partners including representatives from Bangladesh, the EU, the US, and the ILO were present.
“We have reached a consensus that a lot of progress has been made in the readymade garment [RMG] sector to ensure workers’ rights,” Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed told reporters at the joint briefing.
He also said there was no disagreement regarding progress and identified the areas that needed to be addressed further for the safety issues.
Notable progress has been seen in the field of workers’ rights, fire and electrical safety, said Michael J Delaney, assistant trade representative of the United States Trade Representative (USTR), but less progress has been made in trade union registration and rights.
Recognising the progress made in line with the Sustainability Compact, its partners called upon the government to do more in certain areas including labour rights, implementation of labour law and upgrading labour directorate with additional manpower, said the statement.
They also asked for adopting necessary changes in the EPZ law to protect freedom of association and collective bargaining rights, complete inspection of all RMG factories including the sub-contracting ones and recruiting inspectors.
In addition, they asked for timely completion of remediation and its transparent monitoring, recognising the importance of effective financial support.
Earlier, in a session, speakers stressed on social dialogue and joint efforts for continuation of the ongoing safety works, ensuring labour rights through ethical business practices and offering fair price of products.
Labour leader Kalpana Akter said: “Dignity of workers means living wages, safe workplace and a voice to raise concern.”
“The number of union registration has gone up but how many of them can practice healthy trade union activities?” she questioned, adding that the rules made the process of forming trade unions difficult for workers.
She called upon the buyers to do business ethically and ensure fair price of products, saying that makers are really getting low prices and that’s why they have not been able to offer decent wage.
Another labour leader Nazma Akter requested the government to allow traditional trade unions in the EPZs and make sure that each factories have their own safety committees.
Wazedul Islam Khan, renowned labour leader, said cheap labour is the main concern of buyers, but a good wage is important for labours’ dignity.
“If buyers increase product price by 10 cent, workers will be benefitted,” he said, adding that arbitration committees couldn’t be alternatives to trade unions.
Although more trade unions got registered than ever after the Rana Plaza collapse, there have also been anti-union activities at the same time including harassment of workers, lay off threats, and so on.
They called for changing the mindset of the entrepreneurs and the mid-level management of factories about trade unions.
Roger Hubert of H&M requested everyone not to put sweeping blame on buyers as they are investing for safety in the country through Accord and Alliance.
He also admitted that too many things have been asked to do in a short span of time.
He recommended finding a joint approach to continue the ongoing safety work as Accord and Alliance would not be there after 2018.
“Educated workers and entrepreneurs can work for the benefit of companies,” he noted.
Khondaker Golam Moazzem from the economic think tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) requested the Compact stakeholders not to add any new requirements in the existing conditions.
US special representative Sarah Fox called for social dialogue to promote international standards of labour rights as they are important to the stakeholders including the US and EU.
Andreas Julin of EU said the number of trade union and the workers involved with it are not important; what is important is to ensure labour and human rights which are the fundamentals.
As competitions continue, he admitted that there is a necessity for going beyond cheap labour and joint efforts for working together.
Dan Cunniah, special advisor of ILO, recommended genuine workers’ participation in safety committee in factories without any interference.
Terming last year’s union registration slow, he called for social dialogue and building an atmosphere of trust and harmonised efforts.
Bangladesh government’s Labour Secretary Mikail Shipar said: “We were focusing on safety first. Due to shortage of manpower, labour issues could not be addressed.”
He, however, promised to the compact stakeholders that the government would look into labour issues now on a priority basis.
Regarding EPZ law, he said: “We have a commitment to foreign investors and cannot allow traditional trade unions in the EPZ areas, but workers’ welfare associations are being strengthened to ensure labour rights.”