Tough Questions Need to Be Asked Within Bangladesh Too

The RMG industry in Bangladesh has made remarkable progress since the Rana Plaza disaster a decade back. But, ground truths almost always are hard ones. And although much aid/relief has poured into the country since, it still leaves half of the survivors of that tragedy crying for justice. Clearly, something is amiss. A texfash.com analysis.

Subir Ghosh

28 April 2023

5 minutes

Long Story, Cut Short

Victims of the Rana Plaza disaster and other tragic accidents and their families have been treated more with a charitable approach at best rather than the right to compensation principle.
A study conducted by Action Aid Bangladesh said that 54.5% of the survivors are still unemployed.
Among the survivors, 89% have been without work for the past 5 to 8 years, while 5.5% have been unemployed for the last 3 to 4 years.

It has been ten gruelling years since the Rana Plaza disaster. But if one were to go by the articles and reports that have been published over the last one week, one would concur that the issues that were brought to the fore by the tragedy have not yet gone away--they are still rife. By and large, observers, experts and stakeholders agree that much progress has been made, but many ground realities indicate that much work still remains to be done, and workers are still paid, what many would say, in crumbs.

Let's look at some of the reports that have been published over the past week, and some statements that have been issued to gauge what's not going according to plan. Most have insisted that brands still fleece garment manufacturers of Bangladesh, but many bitter truths remain in the fine print, buried somewhere deep inside the copies.

Not mincing its words was a statement from Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB). The plainspeak: "However, despite such progresses the profit-obsessed RMG industry continues to face the main challenge of transitioning to a workers' rights-sensitive business model, leaving the key concerns of the RMG workers who are the main factor of profitability and sustainability of the industry at bay. Practically nothing has happened in ten years to ensure accountability of those responsible for the tragedy and the facilitators and protectors of non-compliance.

Victims of the Rana Plaza disaster and other tragic accidents and their families have been treated more with a charitable approach at best rather than the right to compensation principle. The new labour law, despite many credible provisions, is widely considered to have fallen short of being enough to ensure some key workers’ rights including prevention of harassment for exercising the right to decent work, freedom of association, and protection against discrimination."

The statement pointed at a lot of hogwash. It said that the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC), which has taken over the work of the Accord, follows a problem-solving mechanism without much discretion. Among other things, the TIB pinted out that "inspections have decreased by half in the last fiscal year, while the quality of inspections remains questionable due to alleged corruption. Bribing compliance auditors to overlook non-compliance issues and ignoring important concerns worsens the situation."

Clearly, issues on the ground are very different from what Western fashion NGOs like to deliberate at fashion summits, conclaves and what have you. Many of those alluded to in the TIB statement routinely and regularly appear at these events, but none are held to task. When the Rana Plaza disaster had happened, it would have been gross and insensitive to ask questions related to these issues. But ten years later, the kid gloves need to come off.

This is where it gets tricky. For all their faults, Western fashion NGOs can only do so much, and rushing headlong into domestic problems and politics of a country would not be the right thing to do.

As 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 point out: " it is also widely-known that many of Bangladesh's politicians themselves have an interest in the RMG sector—as investors, as beneficiaries of the industry, or engaged with the sector through close ties. This raises the risk of state capture by a powerful sector.

And there has to be pressure on them, although that pressure can best come from the domestic civil society, and not from international NGOs. Many developing countries resent foreign NGOs because their governments argue that the NGOs are infringing on their sovereignty. That is not a valid argument, but it has nationalistic resonance." [See full interview: More Work Is Needed to Set International Frameworks and Standards]

It is not without reason that the focus still remains on brands.

Last week, the NYU Center for Business and Human Rights published a report A Broken Partnership: How Clothing Brands Exploit Suppliers and Harm Workers—And What Can be Done About it. The report revealed that exploitative practices that buyers had applied during the pandemic have become the new normal with respect to purchasing practices. Broadly, it nailed the following practices: pressuring suppliers for unreasonable price reductions; delaying delivery and withholding payment; cancelling bookings and projections; and, reliance on third-party sourcing intermediaries.

But if you were in this industry, you would know that much of this was old hat. Essentially, old clothes recycled into new ones. Moreover, it was a report about sourcing. Since it was brought out to time with the tenth anniversary of the disaster, it might have made more sense to look at the status of workers, whose salaries improved early on but have stagnated since.

Garment workers in Bangladesh are demanding an increase in the minimum wage from BDT8,000 (US$75) to BDT23,000 (US$215). The usual ruse offered for not increasing salaries is that Western brands and retailers squeeze RMG manfacuturers bone dry, and hence worker salaries cannot increase beyind a point.

At first blush, it might seem a no-brainer: that both salaries and export volumes have doubled in the last ten years. But actual figures display a different image.

In 2013, the minimum wage was roughly BDT3,000 ($38). Towards the end of that year, it was hiked to BDT 5,3000 ($68). In percentage terms, it might have seen like a whopping increase—at 77%. But it was still pittance: just $20. Today it stands at BDT 8,000, and that is one one-third of what the garment worker unions are demanding.

While it is true that RMG manufacturers in Bangladesh had to face order cancellations and were pulled down by payment dues, but then this was true across the world at a time when Western brands and retailers made full use of force majeure clauses.

Yet, it is not that the RMG industry in that country has been living from hand to mouth. In 2012-13, apparel exports were worth $21515.73. By 2021-22, this had doubled to $42613.15. The export volumes grew by $21,097.42. The industry has made remarkable progress in its array of LEED-certified factories and sustainability standards; it is also well off. But for some reason, this is not good enough to increase worker wages.

Ground truths almost always are hard ones.

And all this while it would seem that the survivors of the Rana Plaza disasaster have been rehabilitated well. Reports coming out of Bangladesh indicate they have not been. A study conducted by Action Aid Bangladesh said that 54.5% of the survivors are still unemployed. Among them, 89% have been without work for the past 5 to 8 years, while 5.5% have been unemployed for the last 3 to 4 years. The study, conducted by Institute of Social Business on behalf of Action Aid Bangladesh, was released earlier this month. Action Aid Bangladesh showed no interest in responding to an interview request.

Much aid/relief that has poured into Bangladesh since the disaster. But if that still leaves half of the survivors of that tragedy, that has been milched by many, without a job, then clearly there's something wrong somewhere.