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 data in this report represents signals and cases from January 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017 and is accurate as of July 11, 2018. Cases of trafficking may be ongoing or new information may be revealed to the National Hotline over time. Conseq...Read More
The agenda is a plan of action for people, planet and prosperity. It seeks to strengthen uni- versal peace in larger freedom. The agenda recognizes that eradicating poverty in all its forms and dimensions, including extreme poverty, is the greatest g...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
Large numbers of Ethiopian women seek domestic work in the “Middle East Corridor”—a signifcant social trend that reflects a key livelihood strategy used by Ethiopian families and communities in the face of widespread poverty (Kuschminder, Ande...Read More
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