Garment workers in Bangladesh are still being exploited by fashion brands 10 years after Rana Plaza collapse

Garment workers in Bangladesh are still being exploited by fashion brands 10 years after Rana Plaza collapse

While the anniversary remembers those affected, victims fall back to the bottom of the clothes pile as soon as it is over

April 26, 2023 11:56 am(Updated 11:57 am)

Earlier this year, when my mother waited for her sari to be pressed at a dressmaker’s shop in Sylhet, Bangladesh, she met a machinist restitching a dress to fit a customer. She noticed his hands trembling as he struggled to stitch the length of the dress. The corners of his mouth were drawn downwards, and he blinked several times in quick succession as though something had distorted his vision.

Concerned, my mother asked him if he was well.

“You see this label, Mango? Its dresses were stitched by my niece and her friends at frog square. They died for the clothes other people wear,” he said quietly.

“In April, it will be 10 years since her death and every time I stitch one of those labels, the way in which she died, and its trauma, never leaves me.”

Stories from charities like Action Aid Bangladesh reveal more stories like this. Safia Begum, a woman from Bangladesh, spoke of her devastating loss at the hands of the Rana Plaza collapse: her barely 18-year-old son Lal Mia. He had refused to work on that fateful day because of large cracks in the walls, but the factory threatened him with cutting his salary and forced him to work.

“After 16 days, we finally found his body, only half of it. My grieving husband died mourning the death of his son within a few days,” she said, “I often wonder what my son, Lal, and my husband would look like now! What if my son did not fall into the trap of garment owners’ greed and negligence that day?”

Approximately 2,000 injured workers survived the Rana Plaza building collapse on 24 April 2013. These survivors live in the aftermath of the 1,135 people killed in the deadliest global garment factory accident. Benetton, Matalan, Mango, Primark and other major brands used the eight-storey Rana Plaza building, housing the five garment factories and 5,000 workers to make their clothes.

Mango’s statement in response to the incident said that the company “deeply regrets the tragedy that has occurred in Bangladesh and would like to offer its heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims.”

It also added that “it would have been impossible to detect the structural defects of the collapsed building, since Mango would not have been able to ascertain that the owners of said had building had built three storeys more than is permitted.”

Other brands, such as Primark, responded with pledges to provide help and compensation for victims and their families, while others – like Bennetton – removed subcontractors from their supplier lists.

When my mother tried to console the machinist she spoke to, he shook his head and said that while the anniversary of the Rana Plaza remembers the victims and those affected, garment workers fall back to the bottom of the clothes pile as soon as it is over.

At the time of the tragic incident, the worldwide fashion industry was briefly put under scrutiny, with at least 29 global brands conducting business with one or more of the five factories in the Rana Plaza building. Within a month after the incident, 222 companies signed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh – a legal document to protect the safety of garment workers.

Yet in the month my mother met the man, a study published by Aberdeen University and the advocacy group Transform Trade found that global fashion brands including Zara and GAP were still exploiting Bangladesh garment industry workers. This included brands being linked to unfair practices, including paying the suppliers below the cost of production.

Evidence from the Clean Clothes Campaign found only 0.6 per cent of the retail price of a T-shirt is for a garment worker while the factory owner gets 4 per cent, the brand takes 12 per cent and the retailer 59 per cent. A decade after the Rana Plaza accident, these global brands are still increasing their profits at the expense of survivors who continue to struggle and live in the shadow of its brutality.

Those Aberdeen University findings also revealed that additional challenges faced by these factories and their staff included reduction of prices paid for goods already contracted, refusal to pay for goods despatched or in production, inability to pay the minimum wage and selling below the cost of production, to name a few.

The conditions employees are subjected to, including bullying and harassment to increase the pace at which they work and being forced to do unpaid overtime, are hugely concerning. And they have left many struggling to provide for their families.

At a time when Bangladesh is faced with increasing dangers of climate change, economic disruption from the pandemic and the Ukraine war, global retailers attracting huge profits have a duty to the working conditions and fair pay of those who provide their garments for sale – especially in the wake of tragedies that have unfolded since the building collapse a decade ago. The situation must change before we witness another devastating tragedy.

Rabina Khan is a London-based writer, who also works for a national charity empowering girls and women. You can follow her on Twitter here

#Garment #workers #Bangladesh #exploited #fashion #brands #years #Rana #Plaza #collapse

What’s your Reaction?
+1
0
+1
0
+1
0
+1
0
TOP