When I think about Bangladesh, the somewhat incongruous image that flashes through my mind is a group of women and men wearing salwar kameez and sewing zips onto pink skinny jeans.
Those women and men are amongst the lucky ones in Bangladesh. They work in a so called ‘safe’ factory; one of the better ones.
The factory I am in may be one of the better ones but it is hot. Unbearably hot. So hot that some of the workers have taken off the face masks given to them to protect them from the harmful effects of the cloth fibres. I am not sure I could work for 10 minutes in that heat let alone 10 hours. So I move to the other side of the factory and count my blessings.
1,110 workers lost their lives in the Rana Plaza disaster. 2,500 were injured and countless more families suffer on daily basis as a result of the collapse of a barely maintained clothing factory. The disaster shone a light on the quite hideous conditions that many workers endure in the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh and on the buildings in which they endure it.
The immediate cause of the collapse was quite simple; there was more weight in the building than the structure was ever intended to bear – a weight almost six times greater in fact. The building was constructed for retail and being used for heavy industry. Load bearing columns were erected haphazardly. Two extra floors had been added illegally. Rana Plaza was a disaster waiting to happen. But one of many. Even in the ‘good factories’ like the one I was in, you would not want to put your life in the hands of the rickety old fire escape protruding from the back of the building.
In the last 12 months steps have been taken. More than 100 clothing retailers, including most of Britain’s leading High Street brands, signed up to an accord on fire and building safety in Bangladesh. This introduced statutory safety inspections of garment factories, funds to help factory owners make their buildings safe to work in and gave workers the right to refuse to work in an unsafe building, without loss of pay.
And it is a beginning brought about for the most part by shoppers. Power in this case comes from the consumer wielding a purse or wallet. This is the power that retailers understand. It is not for nothing that Starbucks are upping sticks from the Netherlands and basing themselves here; in a brand-driven consumer-fuelled reputational counter-attack against claims of tax avoidance. I hope shoppers will continue to exert pressure on High Street brands for better standards in Bangladesh and other places like it. Bangladesh needs the ready-made garment industry. It is key to economic growth. It is key to putting food on the tables of Bangladeshi workers.
British politicians need to play their part too; it is clear from my visit that the problem is less about legislation and regulation but more about implementation. This is where the government comes in. Its programme Improving Working Conditions (being run in conjunction with the Netherlands government) is a programme to assist with the technical support required for a robust inspection regime which in the end will be what keeps buildings and workers safe.
In the United Kingdom, on the anniversary of this dreadful disaster, it will be through the continued combined power of consumers and politicians that we can help ensure that these 1,100 lives were not lost in vain.
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Shabana Mahmood MP is a shadow treasury minister
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Photo: Rijans