Mar 15, 2013
Two massive fires at garment factories in Bangladesh and Pakistan last year killed hundreds of workers, many trapped in buildings with inadequate or locked exits. A new report examining both horrific incidents finds that the deaths and injuries were “caused or exacerbated by illegal, unsafe buildings, faulty electrics or machinery, poor safety procedures and avoidable hazards such as blocked or inadequate fire exits.”
The report, Fatal Fashions, points out that workers’ lack of freedom to form unions and bargain collectively to improve working conditions underlies this deadly environment. “Under different conditions, worker representatives could be expected to address this issue with factory management, but in both Pakistan and Bangladesh, factory owners generally refuse to allow trade unions into their factories,” the report says.
“In countries with generally higher factory safety standards, experience proves that involvement of workers in safety committees, the availability of complaint procedures and the freedom to refuse work under unsafe conditions, has contributed to improved safety.”
The report presents company profiles of the factory owners, Ali Enterprises in Karachi, Pakistan and Tazreen Fashions in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and details accounts of the September and November 2012 fires and actions taken in their aftermath, including victim compensation. The report was produced by the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and SOMO (Stichting Onderzoek Multinationale Ondernemingen), an organization that provides independent research for civil society organizations. Among the report’s findings:
• Bangladesh has only 80 inspectors in the entire country—including 20 inspectors for occupational health and safety—for 24,299 factories, 3 million shops and establishments, and two major ports.
• Many of the workers and families affected by the garment fires in Karachi and Dhaka have not yet received any compensation or have only received compensation that fails to cover the loss of income for the survivors and their families. Neither Bangladesh nor Pakistan has ratified International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 121, which recommends a structured compensation plans for victims of workplace disaster.
• The legal minimum wage in both countries “does not equal a living wage.” Bangladesh garment workers are the lowest paid in the world, followed by those in Cambodia and Pakistan.
• Neither Bangladesh nor Pakistan has ratified ILO conventions on freedom of association or the right to a safe and healthy work environment.
In conclusion, the report states that the two cases “are not stand-alone incidents, but the result of systemic hazardous conditions in the garment industry in Pakistan and Bangladesh.” The fires “reflect systemic flaws on the level of government protection of human rights and lack of respect shown by the garment industry for workers’ rights.”
Read the full report.
Feb 20, 2013
Three months after at least 112 workers died in the Tazreen Fashions factory fire, dangerous and deadly working conditions are commonplace for the nearly 2 million Bangladeshi garment workers, who have little recourse than to take jobs that may kill them.
Despite international outrage and local promises to improve workplace safety, at least 37 fire and fire-related incidents have occurred in Bangladeshi garment factories since the Nov. 24 Tazreen tragedy, according to data compiled by Solidarity Center staff in Bangladesh. Nine more people have lost their lives at work and more than 650 garment workers have been injured. The Solidarity Center in the capital, Dhaka, has received reports that underage workers were injured at one factory fire incident.
February 20, World Day of Social Justice, highlights the necessity of promoting decent work, gender equity and access to social well-being and justice for all. Despite a global outcry about workplace safety following the Tazreen fire, where flames engulfed a multistory building lacking in fire escapes and exits, Bangladesh has averaged three fire incidents a week. Bangladeshi garment workers—extremely poor and vulnerable and primarily women—risk their lives every day on the job, often too fearful to complain about substandard conditions and possible dangers.
Bangladesh is now the world’s second-largest clothes exporter with overseas garment sales topping $19 billion last year, or 80 percent of total national exports. Yet the base pay for a garment worker in Bangladesh is the equivalent of $37 a month—the same monthly amount it costs to buy food for one person and the definition of “extreme poverty.”
The Solidarity Center, which for years has been supporting workers’ rights in Bangladesh— including providing fire safety training—is working with partners to hold accountable the Bangladeshi government, which is bound by law to protect its citizens.
Crucially, workers must be empowered and protected—legally and physically—to demand accountability and review their government’s performance in enforcing laws. Bangladesh has laws that, on paper, protect workers, guarantee their right to freely speak and associate and mandate fire escapes. It must enforce these laws. Bangladesh’s workers are best-positioned to improve health and safety conditions. They are in the factory every day. They know which exits are locked, how hazardous materials are stored and when illegal building additions are being constructed above their heads.
Yet, when garment workers in Bangladesh have sought to improve their working conditions, they are harassed, attacked and, in the case of union organizer Aminul Islam, murdered.
“If the government and buyers are serious about addressing deadly working conditions, workers must be able to assert their rights, organize unions with their co-workers, raise safety concerns and demand better working conditions according to their best judgment,” said Tim Ryan, Solidarity Center Asia director.
Jan 31, 2013
Some 2.5 million mine workers in Rajasthan, India, will now be covered by worker compensation for job-related illnesses and injuries, a victory that stems from a multiyear campaign by safety and health advocates. The decision this week by the state of Rajasthan, in northwest India, also provides compensation to widows of miners who died from silicosis and creates a structure for improved safety standards.
The Rajasthan-based Mine Labor Protection Campaign (MLPC) is a member of the Asian Network for the Rights of Occupational and Environmental Victims (ANROEV), a Solidarity Center partner comprised of trade unions, worker rights organizations and occupational safety and health activists from across the region. MLPC pushed for monetary relief for silicosis victims and their families and demanded the government develop a list of Rajasthan’s 30,000 mines. Only 3,706 mines are registered with the Department of Mines, making it impossible to ensure mine safety, according to the MLPC.
Because the central government oversees the regulatory agency on mine safety, these new standards ultimately will apply to the entire country, according to the MLPC.
Silicosis, an occupational lung disease caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust, is incurable—but it is also preventable. In 2006, the National Human Rights Commission declared silicosis an important health problem in India and began accepting complaints on silicosis.
The director general of mine safety will now issue notices to 27,000 mine owners, asking them to update their information within three months or face action. According to the Hindustan Times, the mine safety director general said if the mine owners did not give information about the workers, they would be prosecuted after an inspection of the mines. The agreement also establishes hospital facilities for diagnosing silicosis, which for many years was not correctly diagnosed, according to the Times of India.
Most of India’s miners are internal migrants—people forced by poverty, drought, famine or failed crops to take up this difficult and sometimes deadly job. Ninety-eight percent of miners are tribal or Dalit (belonging to the so-called untouchable class), which places them among the most marginalized of India’s poor, systematically deprived of decent wages and social service support.
This victory follows on the heels of an August 2012 announcement by the Gujarat state government that the heirs of agate workers who die as a result of silicosis be compensated through an insurance scheme. The People’s Training and Research Center, another ANROEV partner, helped secure this protection for workers and their families.
Jan 28, 2013
Seven young women, at least two of them teenagers, died over the weekend in a Bangladesh garment factory fire—the 28th fire incident to frighten, injure or kill Bangladeshi garment workers since a deadly blaze at the Tazreen factory killed at least 112 workers in late November, according to Solidarity Center staff in Bangladesh. At least 491 garment workers have been injured on the job since the Tazreen blaze, according to information compiled by the Solidarity Center.
“Nearly two months to the day we see another preventable tragedy fueled by the relentless drive for cheap production that often entails dangerous facilities, below-poverty wages, cramped conditions and an absence of health and safety programs,” says Solidarity Center Asia Regional Program Director Tim Ryan. “We want to express our deepest sympathy to the families and loved ones of those killed in the blaze.”
According to news reports, the 300 workers at the Smart Export Garments factory faced unsafe conditions similar to those found at Tazreen: locked doors and gates that prevented them from quickly escaping the blaze, a lack of fire extinguishers and piles of flammable material that were not stored in fireproofed areas. Some workers jumped out of windows to escape, and it took nine fire engines around two hours to stop the fire at the two-story factory building. Bangladeshi authorities have confirmed that the building was illegally constructed and lacked proper fire-safety measures.
Bangladesh is the second largest exporter of ready-made garments after China, and clothes account for up to 80 percent of the country’s $24 billion annual exports. Yet the base pay for a garment worker in Bangladesh is the equivalent of $37 a month—below the international poverty line of $1.25 per day.
Over the weekend in the Bangladesh capital, Dhaka, representatives of labor and civil society organizations gathered to discuss worker safety in the nation’s ready-made garment industry. Many participants said the ability of workers to freely form unions and get a voice on the job is essential to establishing safe working conditions.
“There is no alternative to [a] trade union for protecting the basic rights of the workers,” said Dr. Debapriya Bhattacharya, speaking at the Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) conference where he is a distinguished fellow.
Yet workers who try to form unions often face abuse and even death, says Ryan. “Over the past three years, hundreds of garment workers have been injured, and some killed, in clashes with police while demonstrating or on strike for worker rights, most often for higher wages.” Last April, Aminul Islam, an organizer for the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation (BGIWF), a Solidarity Center partner, was murdered, his body bearing signs of torture.
“Too often in low-wage economies, companies find little reason to protect the rights and interests of workers—and corporate self-regulation has proven a faulty tool for ensuring healthy and dignified workplaces,” said Ryan. “Meanwhile, vulnerable and impoverished workers cannot fight alone for their rights and, without the relative strength of a union to represent them, their lives hang in the balance.”
The Solidarity Center has been supporting workers’ rights—including providing fire safety training—in Bangladesh for decades.
