Under the regime of private company or multi-stakeholder voluntary codes of conduct and industry social auditing, workers have absorbed low wages and unsafe and abusive conditions; labour leaders and union members have become the targets of both government and factory harassment and violence; and trade union power has waned. Nowhere have these private systems of codes and audits so clearly failed to protect workers as in Bangladesh’s apparel industry. However, international labour groups and Bangladeshi unions have succeeded in mounting a challenge to voluntarism in the global economy, persuading more than 180 companies to make a binding and enforceable commitment to workers’ safety in an agreement with 12 unions.
The extent to which this Bangladesh Accord will be able to influence the entrenched global regime of voluntary codes and weak trade unions remains an open question. But if the Accord can make progress in Bangladesh, it can help to inspire similar efforts in other countries and in other industries.
This report provides an assessment of the UK-wide Modern Slavery Helpline’s operations in 2019 detailing the number, type and nature of calls, webforms and app submissions received between 1 January 2019 and 31 December 2019 and the number and dem...Read More
This report presents the findings of research conducted by Focus on Labour Exploitation (FLEX) and Fife Migrants Forum (FMF) between March 2020 and February 2021. This research was initiated in order to seek to understand the risk of human trafficki...Read More
Responsible business conduct by European companies plays a crucial role in ensuring that EU policies on human rights are effectively implemented, including with regard to labour. The EU is committed to promoting the implementation of responsible bus...Read More
The mining industry is one of the most polluting, deadly, and destructive industries in the world. Yet to date, mining company responses to the COVID-19 pandemic have received little scrutiny compared to other industries seeking to profit from this ...Read More
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