Conditions for Workers in Garment Factories
Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
The Multinationals are talking, but, according to Amin of the National Garment Workers Union, they are not doing much. "Companies make their own Codes of Conduct," he says, "which are not based on the local reality, so when monitored they miss the point. These codes are not used for development. What will make a big difference to workers' conditions and pay is a multi-stakeholder approach where garment workers, trade unions, factory owners and the buyers get together to discuss and set improvements together.
"That's one reason why Fair Trade interests me greatly - as the only example of this in practice. Fair Trade Standards have been decided by producers and Fair Trade Organisations together, and people become a focus of trade, not profit alone. Fair Trade can provide businesses with great learning in this area.
"Also, we are beginning to see the benefits of Fair Trade Companies applying pressure on mainstream business to change its harmful practices. Corporate Social Responsibility is an example of this consumer pressure and we have the Fair Trade Movement to thank for that."
As members of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) become increasingly keen to bring in regulation so that they can compete on a level playing field - clearly the time has come for bold steps to be made to clean up the fashion industry.
Personally I would also like to see the Company Bill, which is now in discussion, go through. It aims to make directors criminally liable for their overseas activities - a factory worker's family could, in principle, take to court a company director who contracted a factory which collapsed and killed their daughter.
