Worker Safety

Cotton production is under multi-dimensional stress in Pakistan brought about collectively by factors ranging from low yields to low government support, to outdated farming methods on many of the farms, to constant fragmentation of farmland from one generation to the next, to the palpable impact of climatic change.

Non-compliance continues to be a bane with an overwhelming 93.8% of all verified assessments of facilities including at least one and in case of SMEs it went up by 7% in 2023, according to the 2023 Impact Report of the Social and Labour Convergence Program (SLCP).

In a bid to effectively reduce traffic accidents after untold deaths and injuries while transporting workers, Cambodia is finally set to phase out the huge cumbersome flatbed trucks.

Mauritius, the latest example of the use of forced labour within company supply chains, is proof that garment workers can experience unacceptable forms of exploitation that can only be countered through sustained labour organisation.

Investigation into Lululemon exposes major shortcomings in legislation that experts say act as window dressing.

A collaborative Platform for Safety in Apparel and Footwear Industry (PSAFI), launched in India by the Life and Building Safety Initiative (LABS), aims to provide a trusted, neutral space for industry stakeholders to exchange insights on addressing safety issues in the sector.

Garments traverse a complex global supply network by the time they reach stores thousands of miles away. Workers are caught in this web, exploited by factory management. Western brands escape the scrutiny of their governments by outsourcing production to low-cost countries and absolve themselves of direct responsibility. This complex system makes it hard to assign ethical responsibility, because everyone, and therefore no one, is guilty.

The Bangladesh textiles industry before and after the Rana Plaza disaster is a different story. While earlier the focus was on capacity building of management teams on productivity, quality, and HR systems aimed at worker welfare, after the mishap the highlight was that the responsibility of making a factory safe does not rest with only the safety or compliance officer. Dr Rajesh Bheda, CEO and Managing Director, Rajesh Bheda Consulting, shares with texfash.com his observations.

What is needed is an international watchdog that puts more pressure on retailers to treat their supply chains fairly is an essential part of the puzzle. Until a regime is in place with genuine teeth to ensure retailers toe the line, the modern slavery behind high-street fashions will only continue.

The Rana Plaza disaster of March 2013 exposed many faultlines in the fashion ecosystem. That tectonic day threw up a whole lot of issues that were furiously debated the world over. One critical issue was the seemingly confrontational interface between business and human rights. In this freewheeling conversation, Salil Tripathi, Senior Advisor at the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) and Sanchita Banerjee Saxena, IHRB Research Fellow and Director at the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies at the University of California at Berkeley, talk about the lessons for business and human rights.