Fashion’s real victims: 10 years after Rana Plaza, EU
scrambles to prevent future tragedy
European Union is finally drafting rules forcing
companies to police their supply chains.
The EU is finally drafting rules to ensure that the
workers making their clothes are doing so safely |
BY LEONIE
KIJEWSKI, SARAH ANNE AARUP AND SUSANNAH SAVAGE
APRIL 21,
2023 6:21 PM CET
BRUSSELS —
When Rana Plaza, a shoddily built eight-story complex on the outskirts of
Bangladesh’s capital, tumbled to the ground on April 24, 2013, more than 1,100
garment workers were killed. Most had stitched clothes bound for Europe for brands
like Benetton, Mango and Primark.
A decade
on, the European Union is finally drafting rules to force companies to police
their supply chains and ensure that the workers making their clothes are doing
so safely.
But will they work?
The Rana
Plaza disaster sent shockwaves around the world after revelations that workers
had warned of cracks in the building the day before the collapse, but were told
to go back in or face the sack. Three years later, the plaza’s owner Sohel Rana
was one of dozens of people, including factory executives, charged with murder.
The trial, which resumed last year, has still not been concluded.
Wild grass
has since overgrown the rubble on the site, in an industrial suburb of Dhaka,
which is now a dumping ground for household waste. Yet, even as the trial drags
on, the event has profoundly shifted the conversation in Bangladesh and further
afield about workers' rights and responsible business.
Bangladesh’s
garment industry has seen major improvements, largely thanks to the legally
binding International Accord for Health and Safety, said Amirul Haque Amin,
president of the National Garment Workers Federation. Nearly 200 international
brands have signed up, covering 1,500 factories in Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Labor safety has improved and the number of lethal workplace accidents has
fallen.
Crucially,
however, not all Bangladeshi factories are covered. Smaller factories, which
often subcontract work, still need to be “cleaned up,” he said — leaving
millions of workers still trapped in unsafe conditions.
Mandatory due diligence
To address
human rights breaches and labor rights on a more global scale, Brussels is
working on rules that would compel EU-based businesses to police their global
value chains for risks of environmental or human rights violations. The future
law bears potentially huge consequences for European businesses, as they could
be held liable in cases where they didn’t act responsibly and would have to
remedy victims of corporate wrongdoing.
Of the
European retailers whose products were found in the rubble, Benetton and Mango
did not respond to requests for comment. A Primark spokesperson pointed to
financial support the company had given to victims and said that the firm
supported the proposed EU-wide due diligence rules.
The
European Parliament's legal affairs committee is set to vote on its due
diligence stance this Tuesday, paving the way for the lawmakers to finalize
their negotiating position by May. Talks between EU countries and
parliamentarians can then start around the summer, leaving just about enough
time to pass legislation before the 2024 Parliamentary election and the next
European Commission term.
But while
the planned law has been broadly welcomed, it is far from flawless.
Amin, for
one, said lawmakers have so far failed to heed the voice of workers from
countries like Bangladesh.
Of the European retailers whose products were found in
the rubble, Benetton and Mango did not respond to requests for comment |
“They
should have included [workers’ voice] in the first step of formulating the
law,” he said. “'How will this law be implemented in the Global South and what
will be the monitoring system and what will be the role of trade unions in the
Global South? How can we be involved in the whole process? How can our workers
be involved in the process?' These are questions that need answering."
An EU
diplomat agreed that Europe needed to "have serious discussions with the
Global South."
"We
haven't been very open to them," they said. "We have just had online
consultations and just assume that everyone knows we have them."
Preventing tragedy
Still,
businesses, lawmakers and non-governmental organizations are hopeful that,
despite their shortcomings, the due diligence rules could prevent the
repetition of a tragedy on the scale of Rana Plaza.
The
obligation to proactively look for risks and to address them could — had they
been in force — “have gone a long way [in] preventing this,” said Lara Wolters,
the lead European lawmaker on the file.
Aruna
Kashyap, associate director in the Economic Justice and Rights Division of
Human Rights Watch, said the proposed due diligence law "will help close
the gap between companies that take appropriate measures to respect human
rights and the environment, and those that either don’t care or don’t want to
invest money in appropriate measures recommended by rights holders."
But not
everyone is convinced.
The current
rules as the European Commission and EU countries envisage them wouldn't go
nearly far enough to hold companies accountable, said Clean Clothes Campaign
advocacy officer Muriel Treibich.
"Ten
years ago workers and activists had to dig through rubble to identify brands'
labels and hold them accountable; and yet under the [due diligence rules]
opacity will remain as companies will still not be required to disclose who
their suppliers are," she said.
The rules
also rely too much on auditing and certification bodies, which are for-profit
entities that might not conduct safety checks as diligently as they should, she
said.
And for the
EU diplomat, the core of the issue isn't whether or not the EU introduces due
diligence laws — a much broader shift in thinking is needed after decades of
international businesses relocating production to wherever is cheapest.
"We
are asking [for] a really, really big cultural change in their mindset, and
it's not going to happen overnight," they said. "And I think it would
be idealistic to say that 'here is legislation — now the world is going to
change'."
Camille Gijs contributed reporting.
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