Global brands should ensure garment worker safety

"These deaths could and should have been avoided", says CCC International Coordinator Ineke Zeldenrust. “Emergency exits were absent or locked, and workers were trapped. This is the usual pattern: it is well known that many work places are unsafe, and that workers in key producing countries risk their lives on a daily basis producing clothes for Europe and the USA.”

CCC urges brands as well as governments and employers to upgrade the buildings and train workers and management.

Most importantly, they should ensure that workers can freely organize and speak out when safety regulations are ignored. Victims also need to have access to the best possible medical care and to fair compensation. Unions and labour groups in Pakistan have announced major protests today and tomorrow.

CCC is working with partners on the ground to obtain more information, and calls upon all brands sourcing from the suppliers in question to come forward.