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.
The document provides a snapshot of the current debate around reintegration and portrays various positions and practices that can support practitioners and academics in making further progress. This paper intends to analyse past and current frame...Read More
As indicated by revised figures providing additional details on the scope of countries’ workplace closure policies, 94 per cent of the world’s workers are living in countries with some sort of workplace closure measures in place. Although more a...Read More
The following report evaluates and analyzes publicly available information regarding the level of progress H&M has achieved in addressing safety hazards in its factories in Bangladesh. The data is derived from factory inspection reports and Corr...Read More
Pitiful wages, child labour and sexual abuse is reported to be the reality for some Syrian refugees working without permits in Turkey, posing a major challenge for the garment brands that source from the country to supply Europe’s high streets. ...Read More
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