It’s ten years since the tragic collapse of the Rana Plaza building near Dhaka, Bangladesh, which killed at least 1,132 garment workers and injured several thousand more. The collapse of the eight-storey building on April 24 2013, which housed five factories making clothes for western high street brands like Accessorize, Primark and Walmart, was the worst of its kind in the world.
The owner, Mohammed Sohel Rana, had allegedly been told by an engineer the day before that the building was not safe and should be evacuated. Ten years on, the murder trial against him and another 35 defendants has still not been concluded.
The tragedy shed a light on the appalling conditions that sometimes exist in the global retail supply chain. Wealthy countries have unveiled lots of initiatives in the ensuing years to make things better. Unfortunately, the situation has not improved. So where are we going wrong?
The response to Rana
Immediately after the tragedy, various global initiatives were launched to ensure the safety of garment workers in the country, such as the Accord on Fire and Building Safety and Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. These focused on things like increasing building fire and safety audits and inspections, with some success in factory safety for workers.
There have also been moves to curb exploitation and forced labour. Forced labour, which is often referred to as modern slavery, includes situations where workers are not in a position to give informed consent to their conditions, and where they will be penalised if they refuse. Without getting into the fine detail of exactly where this applies, it arguably includes Rana Plaza.
Many wealthier jurisdictions including the UK, France, Germany, the EU and Australia have enacted legislation to tackle forced labour. This requires companies within those countries to produce things like annual modern slavery statements or due diligence reports to show they are managing their supply chains properly and ensuring workers are treated fairly.
Much of this legislation is disappointing. The UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 only applies to companies with upwards of £36 million annual turnover. Companies have to disclose what steps they are taking to deal with slavery risks in their supply chains, but don’t have to specify which abuses have taken place. There is also no penalty for failing to make the necessary disclosures.
On the other hand, Germany has made it mandatory for companies to enforce standards within their supply chains to make sure their suppliers are ethical employers and providing safe working conditions, as opposed to the UK approach of simply requiring a disclosure. Germany also imposes fines of up to €8 million (£7 million) or 2% of annual turnover, whichever is higher. It only applies to companies with turnover in excess of €400 million, however. There are also proposals for a mandatory due diligence directive across the EU, though it’s not yet clear whether this will go ahead.
