Six months on from the horrific Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh, which claimed the lives of more than 1,100 people and injured over 2,500 others, there remain huge challenges to securing safe working conditions for people across the developing world.
The horrific images of the collapsed factory at Rana Plaza were a terrible reminder of the risks that millions of people in the developing world face simply by going to work. They brought home the terrible cost that is sometimes attached to the clothes we buy on Britain’s high streets, though these risks are by no means limited to the garment industry.
The International Labour Organisation estimates that at least two million people, the vast majority in poorer countries, die each year from industrial injuries and diseases, a toll that is largely due to a lethal combination of low levels of health and safety, a lack of health provision, low wages and child labour or exploitation.
Since Rana Plaza, there have been a number of important steps towards improving workers’ safety in Bangladesh and elsewhere, with a number of major high-street clothing retailers in the UK responding to consumer pressure and signing up to an accord which will fund an independent health and safety inspection body for Bangladeshi factories. However, other chains have failed to sign up and I would strongly urge people to sign the TUC’s petition to demand the remaining retailers join the accord – you can add your name here
But as well as individuals and retailers, we need action from the government on issues of workers’ safety. The small but welcome cash injection for factory safety in Bangladesh announced today is welcome, but our response cannot simply be a case of short-term generosity – we need long-term, strategic international action on workers’ safety.
Britain was a founder member of the ILO in 1919, and it does vital work to promote safe working conditions across the world, bringing together governments, employers and workers. Despite this, in 2011 the Tory-led government ended direct funding for the ILO. In the wake of Rana Plaza, we need ministers need to re-engage with the ILO and work with the Bangladeshi government to prevent further tragedies. Worker safety is by no means an issue limited to Bangladesh – thousands needlessly die in sweatshops, construction sites and mines across the developing world. But Britain should seize the moment that the Rana Plaza tragedy represents to help forge a new, international approach to helping ensure that the workers who supply our high streets are employed in safe conditions.
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Alison McGovern MP is a shadow international development minister, honorary vice-president of the Labour Campaign for International Development, a vice-chair of Progress and member of parliament for Wirral South. She tweets @Alison_McGovern
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