Another Factory Tragedy - How Will the Bangladesh and the World React?

This week another disaster struck Bangladesh's garment export sector. Over 250 workers – mainly women – died in the collapse of a building that housed four garment factories in Dhaka. The death toll is likely to mount as rescue work continues.

Last December, a fire at Tarzeen Fashions consumed 112 lives, yet there was little urgency in the country – or by the international community – to deal with the problem of health and safety in this sector, so vital to the nation’s economy. Will this latest tragedy serve as a rallying point for the actions needed to protect the rights of workers in Bangladesh factories?

Here is what we know. There were sufficient warnings: the garment manufacturing and export association says it had asked the factories to shut shop until the building could be inspected, but managers ignored the warnings. A bank with offices in the building had closed operations due to safety concerns, but the factories persisted. Workers who had spotted large cracks in the walls the day before asked their managers anxiously if they could take the day off, but were told they must work, or else they wouldn't be paid their daily wage, which ranges between 14 and 24 cents an hour.

The managers who insisted that work continue are primarily culpable for the deaths, and may possibly face charges of criminal negligence. The construction company that built the eight-storey tower too will have a case to answer. Bangladesh's government and factory inspectors also cannot escape blame.

But it is also true that a wider range of actors have some responsibility for the tragedy. Bangladesh's garment sector is a critical part of the garment industry’s global supply chain - a chain so long that foreign brands have not been able to confirm if the factories involved in the crash - New Wave Style, Ether Tex, Canton Tech Apparel and New Wave Bottoms - were currently executing orders for them. Foreign brands cannot simply say they didn't know. The problems affecting Bangladesh's garment sector have been evident for many years.

Bangladeshi factories are often in dilapidated buildings with exposed electrical wiring, in crowded urban areas. And yet global retailers flock to Bangladesh because of its absurdly low wages. The state has set the minimum monthly wage at 3,000 taka, or about $37, near World Bank definitions of absolute poverty and substantially below Bangladesh per capita income of $848 a year. Bangladesh is a populous country where jobs are scarce and unemployment is high, so those who walk away from low-paid jobs find many other workers willing to replace them, making collective bargaining difficult. Individuals who seek to organize workers face threats as well. Aminul Islam, a trade unionist, was murdered last April.

Despite these very real difficulties, it is the responsibility of the company - the buyer abroad, the manufacturer locally - to ensure that workers' right to health, safety and security are safeguarded. Factory audits matter, but however comprehensive an audit, there is no guarantee it would identify each problem, nor can auditors terminate supplier relationships. The punishment for persistent defaulters - usually suspension - is not made public, allowing a defaulting factory owner to bid for business from a less demanding retailer. Constantly worried that they might lose business from footloose retailers, local manufacturers avoid investing in better buildings with superior construction, solid structures, effective wiring, and with proper emergency exits which are easy to locate.

The New York Times has reported that a number of companies, including PVH, parent company of Calvin Klein and PVH, the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, have endorsed a plan for industry leaders to co-finance fire safety efforts and structural upgrades in Bangladeshi factories. Walmart has apparently refused to join that effort but has pledged to establish a health and safety institute in Bangladesh to train 2,000 factory managers about fire safety.

Disasters like we’ve seen this week should result in a range of new industry efforts. But they should also force the Bangladeshi government to act. According to international worker rights activists, as many as 700 people have died in accidents in Bangladesh since 2000. A fire a century ago in New York killed over a hundred workers. It led to new laws regarding worker safety and security.

How will Bangladesh react?

One would think its politicians would rise to the occasion and pass stringent laws to enforce compliance with health and safety standards. After all, garment exports account for nearly four-fifths of the country’s export earnings. A campaign targeting “blood garments” could devastate the industry. But it is costly to impose, implement, and monitor such standards. And many in Bangladesh believe that if local factories have to invest in improving standards, it will raise costs and global brands that have helped Bangladesh become the second largest garment exporter globally after China will walk away. While some retailers might leave, Bangladesh has to decide what matters more — investor confidence or the lives of its citizens.

A collapse of the garment sector would be bad for Bangladesh. Sociologically too the sector plays an important role in empowering women. Bangladeshi women form the backbone of the garment sector, and as academic Naila Kabeer has pointed out in her book, "The Power to Choose," these jobs - even if poorly paid - create choices women didn't have before, making them independent.

But many Bangladeshi manufacturers don’t appear to see their workers as assets. The manager of Tazreen Fashions, the factory burnt to ground in December, reportedly said he did not know he needed to have an emergency exit at his plant. Other factories, which have caught fire had heavy equipment at their emergency exits, making it impossible for workers to escape. Soon after the Tazreen incident, when I mentioned this to Ineke Zeldenrust, international coordinator for the Netherlands-based Clean Clothes Campaign (LINK), she asked: “How do such factories get the permit to operate or a licence to export? Managers think of people as disposable workforce that can be replaced easily.”Noting the feudal nature of the relationship between employer and employees, she pointed out how some factories offer jobs to the relatives of workers who die at factories, instead of compensating the families. “Think of that family, which has lost someone, now being asked to work in the same factory,” she observed.

The hidden problem facing Bangladesh is regulatory capture. The garment sector has significant political clout. According to activists, some 10% of Bangladeshi parliamentarians own factories and another 20% have some control over factories. They would have to vote against their narrow business interests, if they were to make worker safety paramount. Textile magnates are politically well connected, belong to both major political parties, and successive governments have kept wages low to keep the nation competitive. The sector has been pampered with subsidies and favours: capital equipment for garments remains tax-exempt, while other entrepreneurs must pay high duties for the machinery they import. Result: other industries haven’t developed.

These tragedies are predictable and preventable. Bangladesh has an obligation to protect fundamental worker rights. It must regulate businesses better, ensure proper inspections, and prosecute and punish manufacturers who persist in ignoring safety standards, so that they don't treat their workers as disposable. Global brands have an internationally recognized responsibility to respect human rights – that includes addressing supply chain abuses. Equally important, consumers who want cheap clothes need to ask if the low prices they pay are worth the cost.

If such changes in legislation, implementation, and global attitudes aren’t made a priority now, the tragedy will be repeated, like a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal, which overturns boats in this riverine country with sickening frequency. The cyclone is a natural disaster: a burning factory and a collapsed building aren't.

Photo: NYU Stern BHR