On April 24, 2013, a building that housed two garment factories collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. No less than 1,134 workers, mostly women, lost their lives; 2,581 others were pulled from the rubble with sometimes serious injuries. Ten years later, the shock wave of the Rana Plaza tragedy is still being felt all over the world, including at home.
A coalition of organizations is calling for legislation that would force Canadian companies to prevent workers’ rights abuses in their overseas operations. Companies here should do “due diligence” to ensure that their workers (or those of their suppliers) are treated well in countries like Bangladesh. This Asian state is the world’s second largest clothing exporter, after China.
“The clothing industry works on a great injustice: the exploitation of workers,” argues Michèle Asselin, director general of the Quebec Association of International Cooperation Organizations (AQOCI).
This organization took part in a day of reflection and mobilization, Monday in Montreal, aimed at making the Canadian fashion industry responsible for the rights of workers who make clothes abroad. There fast fashionthis tendency to market less durable clothing at low cost works against workers.
Misery conditions
AQOCI and other organizations believe that some major brands are complacent about the degrading working conditions of textile workers in developing countries.
In Bangladesh, factory construction and maintenance standards were tightened after the Rana Plaza tragedy. Working conditions remain precarious all the same, underlines Amélie Nguyen, coordinator of the International Center for Workers’ Solidarity (CISO). Garment workers in Bangladesh earn a pittance of around $100 a month, face harassment or other violence, and freedom of union association remains contested.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has rolled back workers’ rights in Bangladesh,” says Amélie Nguyen. Employees who were sick or forced to stay home frequently went unpaid, she said.
Possible lawsuits
Under the non-governmental organizations’ proposal, major Canadian brands that sell apparel produced in violation of foreign workers’ rights would be subject to prosecution in federal courts. European countries have adopted similar corporate “due diligence” laws.
In Germany, a first lawsuit was filed last week under the Supply Chains Act, which obliges German firms to respect the rights of workers of their overseas contractors. The complaint denounces in particular a lack of inspections of labor standards and violations of freedom of association in textile factories in Bangladesh.
Two organizations, including the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, support the legal process launched in Germany by a Bangladeshi trade union.
The New Democratic Party (NDP) has tabled a similar bill (C-262), which would require Canadian companies to do “due diligence” in favor of the rights of workers of their overseas contractors. This project would strengthen the Canadian Ombudsman for Corporate Accountability, criticized for its lack of teeth.
“The current government, although concerned about the form of human rights around the world, still has not put in place laws to prevent another disaster like the Rana Plaza. It’s time to fix it,” NDP MPs Peter Julian and Heather McPherson said Monday.