A decade after Bangladesh’s deadliest garment factory fire, brands still ignore workers' safety

RMG workers have marked the day, pledging to continue the struggle for workplace safety and justice for those injured and killed in such incidents in Bangladesh and beyond

Garment workers in Bangladesh have marked a decade since the Tazreen Fashions fire, one of the nation's deadliest industrial incidents.

The workers paused to remember and pledge to continue the struggle for workplace safety and justice for those injured and killed in such incidents in Bangladesh and beyond.

While considerable progress has been made, a lot remains to be done and progress must be guarded: this includes the need for brands which were connected to the Tazreen factory to finally sign the safety Accord, which protects workers in Bangladesh, the Clean Clothes Campaign said in a statement on Thursday.

“Ten years since the fateful day of Nov 24, 2012, we remember those who died and our thoughts are with those who still live with the consequences of the fire.”

At least 112 garment workers were killed, many of them because they were unable to escape – trapped between locked exits and barred windows, according to the statement.

This was not the first major garment factory fire in Bangladesh. For years brands and factory owners had been aware of the hazards for garment workers in the industry, but failed to act, the campaigners said.

“Only after the Rana Plaza building came crashing down exactly six months later did brands rush to action and sign the legally binding Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh.”

A decade later, there are still brands which have failed to draw the lessons from the preventable deaths at Tazreen and Rana Plaza. Major brands connected to the Tazreen fire, like Walmart, Sears, and Disney, as well as brands implicated in the Rana Plaza collapse, like French supermarket chain Auchan, JC Penney, The Children’s Place and, again, Walmart, have yet to sign the International Accord for Safety and Health in the Textile and Garment Industry, the campaigners said.

This binding agreement between unions and brands has replaced the initial Bangladesh Accord and will expand its life-saving programme beyond Bangladesh.

“It is a disgrace that while 186 brands have signed this agreement, some laggards, most notably several brands which have first-hand experience with workers dying in their factories, have failed to commit to protecting the safety of the workers in their supply chain,” said Kamrul Hasan from Akota Garment Workers Federation.

On this day, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights and Femnet, supported by a range of Bangladeshi unions, have sent a notice letter to brands that fall under the German supply chain law, which will take effect as of Jan 1 next year, and have not yet signed the Accord. They include German brands Tom Tailor, Deichmann, Swedish furniture and home textile giant IKEA, and US online retailer Amazon.

The letter warned that if companies fail to join the initiative they could face legal action under the law.

While legal action should not be necessary for brands to take their workers’ safety to heart, the campaigners hoped that this would be the final push for major brands like Amazon and IKEA to sign the Accord and make other companies follow.

Ten years since the Tazreen fire, and more than nine years since the start of the Accord programme, the legally binding and enforceable system that holds brands to account for its suppliers and gives workers avenues to raise their safety issues effectively has proven its worth, the Clean Clothes Campaign said. It has prevented mass casualties in the industry and made factories noticeably safer, according to the statement.

Clean Clothes Campaign and its Bangladeshi partners and global allies pledged to continue to monitor if the Accord’s Bangladesh operations keep these records up, by taking action against non-compliant factories, being transparent about its operations, and continuing to ensure workers can speak out without fear of retaliation by management.

For workers who were injured or even died in factory incidents in the past decade since the Tazreen fire, it is important to ensure that financial compensation is accessible, the alliance said.

This year, the Bangladesh government, in association with employers, trade unions, the International Labour Organisation, Germany, and the Netherlands, started a pilot project of an Employment Injury Insurance scheme for garment workers which will provide injured workers and family members compensation for loss of income and medical costs.

For this pilot to be successful it is paramount that international brands and retailers factor in the costs related to the injury insurance scheme in their contracts with suppliers, and that the employers have registered all their workers, the Clean Clothes Campaign said.

Furthermore, while the campaigners hoped that this pilot will lead to a fully-fledged insurance scheme for garment workers in Bangladesh, it is also vital not to forget workers who remain uncompensated in the past decade and to provide justice for them.

Looking back at the ten years since Tazreen, Amin Amirul Haque, president of the National Garment Workers Federation, said, "After the tragic incidents of Rana Plaza and Tazreen Fashions a lot has changed but unfortunately the state of the right to organise and collective bargaining has remained unchanged. Bangladesh is also still far away from achieving living wages and gender equality.”

Commenting on ongoing efforts to improve working conditions in the garment industry, he stated,

“Different initiatives are being worked on, including the upcoming EU due diligence law. To enforce labour laws in the apparel sector, workers and workers’ organisations must be part of the inception, implementation process, and complaint and compliance mechanism. The law will not be effective if it is only developed by EU-bodies without involvement from civil society."