OECD ministers have called upon international textile firms to contribute to the compensation fund for victims of the Rana Plaza factory disaster in Bangladesh.
They also pledged to be engage with clothing chains in their own countries and urge them to contribute to the fund, said a statement adopted in Paris and signed by ministers from a number of major European countries.
The joint statement by the ministers of Foreign Trade of Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom was posted on the website of the government of the Netherlands on Monday.
They made the call in a joint ministerial statement at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Global Forum on Responsible Business Conduct in Paris.
“This is a clear signal to international clothing brands that have not yet taken any responsibility for the victims of Rana Plaza. Many are now handicapped and will never be able to work again,” said Dutch Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen, who visited Bangladesh recently.
“There is no excuse for the fact that these people are still left empty-handed after a year,” said the minister.
A trust fund formed to compensate the victims of Rana Plaza needs $40 million. So far, only $17 million has been raised.
As far as is known, there were no Dutch companies that did business with Rana Plaza. Some 19 Dutch clothing chains have signed the safety accord for the textile industry in Bangladesh, which provides for safety inspections at the factories, Ploumen said adding that businesses are also working in other ways to improve working conditions.
At the Global Forum, Ploumen spoke with her Bangladeshi counterpart about the impasse that has arisen in relation to the closure of unsafe textile factories.
The cause is a disagreement about the required concrete strength of factory buildings between the three major parties that conduct inspections: the Bangladeshi government, the members of the Accord of European textile businesses and the Alliance of American Textile Companies, said the minister.
Ploumen pressed for a swift resolution of the dispute and pledged the support of the Dutch embassy in Dhaka.
“In Bangladesh, major steps have been taken over the past year towards a fair and safe textile industry,” said the minister. “But there is still a long way to go. We must not let our efforts flag or allow the process to get bogged down.”
The OECD Global Forum brings together businesses, policymakers, trade unions and civil society organisations to discuss ways of improving compliance with OECD guidelines on corporate social responsibility.
Keys sectors for this year’s meeting were raw materials, textiles, agriculture and financial services.
