Bangladesh readymade garment supply chain still suffers from lack of ‘shared responsibility’ on the part of global buyers although transparency of the buyers and working condition in the country’s RMG factories have improved since the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013, according to a global report.Germany-based Garment Supply Chain Governance Project conducted a survey on 152 managers and 1,500 workers of export-oriented RMG factories in Bangladesh and found that the fundamental business model in the garment supply chain was not changing as production remained an industry with high levels of opportunity for countries to connect to global value chains, but that came at a price for workers.The survey also covered the behaviour of large global garment buyers in five countries including Australia, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, and found important changes including increased transparency, consolidation of supply chains and formation of collective governance initiatives.According to the report titled ‘Changes in the Governance of Garment Global Production Networks: Lead Firm, Supplier and Institutional Responses to the Rana Plaza Disaster’, Bangladeshi suppliers are facing difficulties in meeting the demands of global buyers due to lack of shared responsibility.‘We observe a stronger concern for worker safety and labour standards on the one hand and continued tensions between buyers’ demands for low production costs and speed on the other,’ the report said.Eighty-one per cent of the factory managers said that the most important change in the industry since the Rana Plaza collapse was the improvement in safety while majority of the managers, however, reported inspection process to be problematic for reasons including receiving multiple inspections by multiple inspectors, miscommunications and unplanned inspections.‘Another concern was that some factories in shared or non-purpose built premises needed to relocate. Firms in such premises which were not able to meet the new standards had to move and often ended up in more remote regions,’ the report read.They also did not receive financial support with relocation costs from buyers, the government or their industry associations, it said.The report said that not a single factory in the study received financial assistance from buyers; instead they had seen reduced prices.‘The buyers have never come forward to help me on compliance issues. They always say, “It is your problem, not mine”. They do not advance us loans in order to carry out the CAPs or even commit to giving us guaranteed orders,’ the report said quoting a factory manager.Garment Supply Chain Governance Project carried out the survey among 1,500 workers from 250 factories in and around Dhaka and most of the units were affiliated either to the Accord or to both the Accord and the Alliance.Ninety-six per cent of the workers in Accord and Alliance factories felt safe in their factory building, while 90 per cent reported that they could refuse to go into the factory if the building was perceived to be unsafe, the report said.‘Our key finding is that working condition in the Bangladesh garment industry has improved since Rana Plaza. Although precise causal attribution is difficult, this effect is stronger at larger factories, and firms affiliated to Accord and Alliance perform better across all factory sizes,’ the report observed.Better working conditions and wages at Accord and Alliance factories might in part be a positive spillover from the rigorous enforcement experienced when buyers collaborated to ensure that suppliers have ‘no choice’ but to comply, factory managers said during the survey.The survey found some labour rights abuses, such as forced overtime, low wages, and verbal abuse remained entrenched in garment factories, reflecting an unchanged business model in the industry.It said that fast fashion systems which involved production requiring quick turnaround and low prices were expanding while the length of buyer-supplier relationships was growing, producers generally could not be sure of maintaining order levels year on year.The fast fashion model often involves production taking place in facilities with weak labour regulation and businesses working under high levels of pressure to remain globally competitive, the report read.Lack of safety in Bangladesh’s RMG sector was exposed in 2013 by the collapse of Rana Plaza, a building that housed factories which produced clothing for multiple international garment companies. The disaster killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers.Following the disaster, EU buyers and brands formed Accord on Fire and Building Safety and North American buyers formed Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety with the aim of transforming the safety of the RMG industry in Bangladesh through a regime of inspection and remediation.The Garment Supply Chain Governance Project study suggested that national and international initiatives should not just focus on the point of production, but should also take into account possibilities for regulating consumption behaviour, for instance by enforcing increased transparency for buyers about working conditions in their supply chains and for the governments to set an example through sustainable public procurement.Garment Supply Chain Governance Project is funded by the VolkswagenStiftung as part of the ‘Europe and Global Challenges Program’ in cooperation with the Wellcome Trust and Riksbankens Jubileumsfond.
