What has the Rana Plaza collaps taught us?

When the Rana Plaza factory complex in Bangladesh collapsed on April 24 media attention was finally drawn to the horrible working conditions of the garment industry. The knowledge is spreading with headlines in the major newspapers and finally friends of mine who have never considered where their clothes from, sign the Change petition and some ask me what they can do. The attention to the long-standing problem is great and we need to create momentum now that we have the attention of the media.

Some of the most disturbing factors surrounding the incident is that the entire first floor which functioned as a shopping mall was evacuated the day before. The risk was evidently known by the factory owners, but a pressing order was in production and the deadline had to be met. Furthermore, two of the factories in the complex were certified by BSCI and one by SA8000. BSCI is not a very well-known certification, but it covers working conditions and worker's rights. They both certify against child labour, forced labour and a legal minimum wage. Therefore they use the argument that their certifications are not designed to cover building integrity, however, when two days before the building was condemned unsafe, the factory owners forced the workers to continue working with the threat that by leaving they would give up their wage for the month.

Now comes the big question, what have we learnt from this and what will we do to prevent such disasters from happening again? Many are calling for industry leaders to make suggestions, including BSCI and EFF. The Accord on Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety is a great answer to this question. All certifications up until now are privately held, this one is legally binding. Adding to that it makes it a requirement that brands make their audit reports publicly available. This is a ground-breaking idea which would set Bangladesh apart from any other country. The garment industry is audited time and time again, several times a year by every company that they supply, but the heaps of information is kept secretly in the databases of the companies and their auditors. What if a company was legally bound to act upon or report unsafe working environments to the local authorities? What if the information gathered could be looked over by the National Garment Workers Federation?

Firoz Ahmed: the National Garment Workers Federation campaigns for safer work environments.

The things to take with us from such a disaster is that auditors close their eyes to the real dangers. The factory owners and the powerful buyers with the pressing orders are the decision makers in instances like this. It is crucial to doubt certifications, even the ones we love - like fairtrade and organic certifications of coffee and cotton. Shirahime is a new blog that I have just found, who in this blogpost shares some gruelling facts about the certification system. We need to make a paradigm shift away from private for-profit certification systems whose auditors are paid for by the authority itself and change our perception of the problem.

The issue is just as much the issue of ourselves and our governments as it is a problem for Bangladesh/China/Vietnam/India/etc. By trading with these countries we move problems of labour safety away from our own country and into the world marketplace. The globalised world marketplace becomes our territory.

We need to make a revolution in the mindset of the entire supply chain of the fashion industry. Not only the CSR board need to understand the importance of fire safety, working conditions and living wage. The buyers, merchandisers, factory owners, factory production managers and the supervisors of the seamstresses need to understand that foreign money should raise the bar for pay, working conditions and thereby the living standards of everyone implemented. Their own governments encourage and lobby for these investments under the hope that the country's economy will improve and poverty decrease. But if the money stays with the rich that just won't happen.

Read more of the Clean Clothing Campaign's extensive coverage here and sign their petition to urge brands who source in Bangladesh to sign the Fire and Safety Agreement and make the brands who placed orders with the factories involved compensate for their loss.

The turn of a grim Monday

Today felt pretty grim in a proper Monday mood until I went swimming in the Lido and felt a little better about the world - and then I sat down in front of the computer to find that a major reform of the Bangladeshi labour laws is about to start and now I feel like it's the best day in a long time.

To me it seems that finally the global attention towards labour issues have given the NGWF the power to pressure the Bangladeshi government into talks of raising the minimum wage. The retailers are in defence and any comment or lobbying against would be of interest to the media - meaning that the power is finally distributed in favour of the workers. H&M actually signed the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Agreement - pushing Primark and several others who had previously refused because they can't afford to pay for the factory buildings upgrading work into safe working environment. (Either it tells you something about the state of these buildings and what the retailers know about that, or it tells you just how greedy they are).

It has been announced that the minimum wage will be raised (currently at $37), which is roughly half of what it is even in India (Rs. 2500 vs. India: Rs. 4500). It is extremely important that we help press for the biggest increase possible and that the new freedom in joining unions is praised so that factory owners and the middle management understand that there is industry support behind their government's laws.

Important times are ahead of the NGWF and any consumer interested in raising living and working conditions of the 4.5 million workers in the Bangladeshi garment industry. Let us all show our support and hope that the momentum will build and spread.

Source: NyTimes, Jim Yardley

10 Reasons Why Factories Don't Pay A Living Wage (And Why They Suck)

Inspired by Ecouterre's recent article '10 Biggest Excuses For Not Paying A Living Wage (And Why They Suck)' I've decided to try and explain what I have seen and heard since I arrived here in India. There is an understanding that it is the multinational companies who pay the garment workers, when in fact it is relatively small manufacturers employing between 400 and 1,000 workers at each plant. To understand the wage system then, we can't forget the middlemen. These owners of the manufacturing units are the people squeezed between powerful corporations and penniless workers and rising raw material costs with an expectation to be making big time money.

Here are my first four reasons why factories don't pay a living wage (and why they suck)...

The entrance to a garment factory fully equipped with security and 'No Child Labour' signs

1. When a buyer places an order, she does so on the basis of the price

The fashion industry has built a system in which buyers can demand free product development services from the manufacturer in return for the prospect of an order. Therefore the buyer will ask several manufacturers to develop the same pattern for the same style, in the end she chooses only one. In theory it enables the buyer to choose the manufacturer with the best eye for detail and quality of product. Practically it only comes down to price. If the products are pretty basic in design it's all about being the manufacturer in the run who dares to go 5 cents lower than the rest. For more complex products the buyer will choose the best design and use the offer from the other manufacturer to exert pressure on the manufacturer to go cheaper. If the manufacturer continuously puts his prices too high, he will not receive these offers in the future.

It may seem ridiculous that a few pennies make such a big difference for a company. It certainly doesn't for the customer to whom adding 40p to the price is not a big deal; £4.99 or £5.39. But considering an order for a million t-shirts this increase is suddenly £400,000. Clothing retailers are holding on to their margins with sharpened claws these days all the while customers are becoming more and more price sensitive and increasingly waits for the sale. Buying clothes at discount only gives one message to the retailer: "I want my products cheaper". It doesn't exactly say: "I want your margins to be lower".

2. The workers are lucky enough to have a job

The most common excuse for not paying a living wage is that workers are already being paid the lawful minimum wage, or that they are lucky enough to be off the streets. And it's true. Garment workers are better off than the poorest part of the Asian population, and the producers of garments for exports to the West are even better off than the majority of garment workers altogether.

But that doesn't mean the situation fine. If development goes in the direction that even the outsourced workforce are paid a better price, then maybe fabric suppliers can start demanding decent wages and so the chain will expand. In the end the drivers and servants will be able to make enough money for their families. The vegetable sellers and all the merchants are inclined to gain better sales too. The prospect of the garment sector to influence the entire economic development of the region is massive. Every little payment of a decent wage is a promise of a future with less people in poverty. And that's why they are not just lucky enough to have a job; workers can become mediators of positive change.

 Just one of the many rooms in a very unorganised factory

3. If workers are paid too much they will become lazy

This is the most ridiculous argument that I have heard. Fortunately I haven't directly heard it from a factory owner, but the argument circulates as an example of bad leadership at my college. Some of my lecturers who studied ways to improve the health of embroidery workers found that giving them a simple angular table would enable them to save their backs. In their study of quality control workers they found that a bar stool would be significantly better for their legs and backs. However, the managers they approached were against the changes because the workers would become lazy. To date embroidery workers are still hunched over their work and quality control assistants are trying to rest their legs by standing on one leg at a time. This exemplifies what middle managers think of their workers; lazy and inefficient. It doesn't exemplify reality.

4. The wages are the only price factors that a factory owner can regulate

In the endless race to the bottom of prices (Reason 1) the buyers have decision power over so much that only the wages are left for the manufacturer to decide. When visiting a large manufacturer recently we asked what the most frustrating part of dealing with buyers was, and the answer was this: buyers sometime have the most ridiculous expectations of quality and embellishment levels combined with price offers that hardly pay for the lining. It's not possible for the manufacturer to cut low on the quality of fabrics as they have to be approved in several procedures - the trims and accessories too.

The only levitation left is investment of new machinery and wages. There are limits to both, but it's easy to see that a broken sewing machine works less than even a hungry worker.

Stay tuned on Twitter for the next 6 reasons of why factories don't pay a living wage...