THOSE $70 pair of jeans or cheap shirt may seem like a bargain but someone else is paying a much higher price for your cheap clothes. And chances are that person is a woman in Bangladesh who has earned less that month than the cost of the item you’re buying. But former child garment worker Kalpona Akter doesn’t want you to feel bad or guilty about it. Instead she wants Australian consumers to do one thing. “Don’t boycott clothing made in Bangladesh, that’s not the solution, it’s our major industry and it is our jobs,” she told news.com.au while visiting Australia this week. “But please ask the store manager where your jeans or clothing come from, and is the person who made them being paid a fair wage? “They probably won’t know the answer but if enough people ask it will eventually get to the top of the chain.” While acknowledging big names and brands including Kmart, Target and Cotton On had taken steps in recent years to ethically source its goods, she said they didn’t go far enough. “They may have singed the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, but can they absolutely ensure workers are being paid are being paid a fair price?,” she said. “The minimum wage of $88.40 a month (in Bangladesh) is not enough to support a sustainable living wage. “If the big brands gave just a few cents of their enormous profit it would make a huge difference to workers in Bangladesh. Yes we need jobs, but we also need dignity.” If anyone knows the unfair conditions garment factory workers endure, she does. Now the founder and executive director of the Bangladesh Centre for Workers Solidarity, Ms Akter began working in a garment factory with her younger brother when she was just 12. “I remember working 16-20 hour days and being so tired we would sleep on the factory floor,” she said. “I would work 400 hours a month and be paid just $6 a month. “There was verbal abuse and we would be slapped for making minor mistakes.” Bangladesh is the second largest garment exporter in the world after China. “It is the backbone of our economy,” she said. “Around 80 per cent of our exports is clothing and the industry employs four million people, 80 per cent of which are women.” Major brands and labels including H&M, Jay Jays, and Gap all source clothing made in Bangladesh. Ms Akter, who was in Australia as part of Human Rights Watch Voices for Justice Dinners to receive the Alison Des Forges Award for Extraordinary Activism, said conditions had dramatically improved since the Rana disaster. But it hasn’t been easy with many activists facing bullying, abuse and intimidation, while others have been killed or received death threats from factory owners. “As a person who loves my family and wants to be around them, then this worries me,” she said. “As an activist, it doesn’t.” In April 2013, the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka collapsed killing more than 1100 people. Following the tragedy, Ms Akter and others campaigned for safer working conditions for those in the industry which accounted for $36.4 billion worth of garment exports in 2015-2016. Hundreds of brands and companies have since signed the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. Ms Akter said these measures didn’t go far enough. “Rana made headlines and made the world pay attention,” she said. “It also made people start to look at more than just the price tag.” The accord is a binding agreement which requires international brands to ensure compliance by their production factories with inspection-based recommendations to improve factory fire safety and construction. However the Alliance on the other hand is voluntary. “Just Jeans hasn’t signed up to the accord, so next time you shop there ask what steps they’re taking to be responsible,” she said. News.com.au has contacted the Just Group for comment, however according to a statement on the group’s website, the company run by Premier Investments, “direct sources from factories with whom we work in close partnership.” It is a member of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. The company also conducts ongoing compliance activities of all suppliers directly and senior management personally inspect all factories that manufacture for them. “Premier currently sources a portion of its Just Jeans and Jay Jays branded products in Bangladesh and we highlight our program in this country in the interest of full transparency,” the website reads. Just Jeans insists it has measures in place to ensure its products are ethically sourced. Just Jeans insists it has measures in place to ensure its products are ethically sourced.Source:News Limited. However Ms Akter said the voluntary nature of the alliance’s agreement means that the inspection results can’t be enforced. She also the big brands would argue they are taking steps to be more ethical, but the reality was they needed to step up and ensure workers in its supply chains were being fairly paid and not exploited by factory owners.
DISASTER ‘WAITING TO HAPPEN’
When Rana collapsed, Ms Akter wasn’t surprised and had seen first-hand the unsafe conditions many garment workers were subjected to. Having been involved in a factory fire as a teenager, she escaped with her life, but she knows not everyone is as lucky as she was. According to Human Rights Watch, the workers the Rana Plaza were not union members and many had raised issues regarding safety in the past. Significant improvements have taken place since but HRW said safety and labour issues remain a key concern. It said workers were also bullied for attempting to join a union while activists had been abused and harassed. HRW has also documented continuing and serious labour violations of labour rights including unpaid overtime and workers being abused for not meeting quotas. It called for greater transparency in supply chains and more thorough inspections in factories.
