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.
For several years now, international media has shone a spotlight on the inhumane working conditions of migrant fishers from Southeast Asia. The vessels they work on reportedly use destructive, illegal, and unreported methods, which take a heavy toll...Read More
The Behind the Brands Scorecard assesses the agricultural sourcing policies of the world's ten largest food and beverage companies. It exclusively focuses on publicly available informa- tion that relates to the policies of these companies on their so...Read More
The Modern Slavery Act 2015 (“the Act”) is a ground-breaking piece of legislation. Four years after it received Royal Assent, and as other countries are following our lead and developing similar legislation, it is critical to consider the legal ...Read More
A LOT CAN CHANGE IN A DECADE. FOR BETTER, AND FOR WORSE. Ten years ago, in the early hours of April 24, 2013, a garment factory in Dhaka, Bangladesh, crumbled. Within its walls were thousands of workers, many of whom never returned home to their ...Read More
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