On Tuesday 26 September, international NGO network Clean Clothes Campaign urged Western clothing brands, textile industry employers and the Bangladeshi government to guarantee compensation in the short-term and finalise details of the introduction of a permanent compensation scheme for the victims of accidents at work in the textile and clothing industry in Bangladesh, where a new fire broke out and killed at least six people on 20 September.
Ad hoc compensation systems based on international standards (ILO Convention 121) involving all stakeholders were established after the fire at the Tazreen factory in 2012 that killed 112 and the collapse of Rana Plaza in 2013 (1,134 deaths). They are based on a permanent public compensation scheme, but the legal and institutional backing required to set up the scheme have not yet been finalised so "the remedial system for worker injury in Bangladesh remains piecemeal, unpredictable and even discriminatory at times", Clean Clothes Campaign explains.
The NGO network has logged more than a hundred accidents in the textile sector in Bangladesh since the Rana Plaza disaster, which killed 45 workers and injured more than 500. The network says that brands have an obligation to ensure access and provision of remedy as part of exercising due diligence within their supply chain, and it urges brands supplied from Bangladesh (and their suppliers) to put pressure on the Bangladeshi government to set up a permanent compensation system.
In addition, Clean Clothes Campaign calls on brands to expand the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety (which comes into force in May 2018) to other aspects of the textile sector, such as weaving, dyeing and yarn factories. (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)