Most garment workers do not feel safe at work. Not only are they working in dangerous buildings, but workers are routinely exposed to inhumanely high temperatures, harmful chemicals and physical violence. We are involved in programmes to help prevent injuries and deaths on the job and appeals for compensation for workers involved in incidents that could have been prevented.



The problem

The search of the global garment and sportswear industries for the lowest production costs comes at a high price: the health and safety of workers. After more than a century of work as CCC, developing national regulations and international conventions, workers continue to lose their health and lives while stitching our clothes.

World-wide attention on worker safety in the garment industry has grown enormously since three devastating accidents that killed thousands of workers and shook the world: the factory fires of Ali Enterprises in Pakistan and Tazreen Fashions in Bangladesh, both 2012, and the Rana Plaza Collapse in 2013, Bangladesh.

But workers are not only threatened by unsafe buildings. Dangerous practices, such as the unprotected use of chemical substances or sandblasting, continue to be common in the industry. And even workers behind the sewing machine are exposed to health hazards, such as noise, high temperatures and repetitive motion. Fainting is common in factories where workers make long hours without proper ventilation or air conditioning and are paid too little to properly feed themselves. Also workers are subjected to verbal and psychological harassment and violence, especially the majority of women in the industry, who additionally potentially face gender based violence and sexual harassment.

Worker Fainting Croatia Quote

- Workers sandblasting jeans with no safety equipment.


- Ali Enterprises worker's protest, Pakistan - 2012


 

Factory Safety Quote

- Tazreen Factory Fire, Bangladesh 2012.


Rana Plaza Lives Lost


What we do

Immediately after the Rana Plaza collapse of 2013, in which 1,134 workers were killed, we were involved in the establishment of the legally binding Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. This programme has been so successful in making factories safer that brands and unions decided to continue the work after its first five year mandate ran out. As witness signatories to the Accord we critically follow brands’ interaction with the Accord (see for example this report), campaign for brands to join the programme and campaign for its work to continue. Because of the Accord’s clear successes in making factories safer, unions and labour groups in other countries such as Pakistan are now looking into how the example can be adapted to national circumstances in other countries.

Our goal is to make sure that mass disasters like Rana Plaza will never happen again. But workplace injuries and deaths can never be entirely prevented. Therefore we want to make sure that workers receive full and fair compensation for their medical costs, loss of income, and pain and suffering if they do get injured on the job. Governments, brands, retailers and employers must all take their responsibility. In the cases of the mass disasters at Ali Enterprises, Tazreen and Rana Plaza we have fought long struggles to make sure that brands pay into funds to provide compensation to affected families. This is particularly important in absence of national social security systems that live up to international standards. In Bangladesh, we are therefore advocating for the establishment of a national employment injury insurance scheme.

Many dangerous practices in garment factories are hidden deep in supply chains. Brands should be aware about these potential violations, actively address them and allow workers and activists to help in this process by making their supply chains more transparent. The solution starts with awareness and the willingness to address problems. An example is our campaign again sandblasting, which led to over forty brands pledging to eliminate sandblasting from their supply chains. Eventually promises however are not enough; the most pressing problems in global supply chains should be addressed through enforceable agreements through which brands make themselves legally accountable to improve safety in their supply chain.


Background

The Rana Plaza collapse of 2013 functioned as an eye opener for the garment industry and accelerated processes that had started years before to address the problem of dangerous workplaces in Bangladesh. The establishment of the Accord, only weeks after the collapse, was a departure from the corporate-led voluntary, commercial system of auditing that had failed to prevent the mass disasters of the months, years and decades before. Truly sustainable safety in the workplace can only be reached if workers can address their own safety freely and refuse unsafe work, without fear of dismissal (see the report Our voices, our safety). Ultimately, full freedom of association is the only safeguard to that, but the Accord has been also been instrumental in empowering workers through their training programme and complaint mechanism. The successes of the Accord in reaching a transparent and enforceable programme to address factory safety confirmed our belief that that better regulation, inspection and enforceable brand agreements are the way forward for the industry. Over the years the Rana Plaza anniversary has become a moment of reflection to sum up the situation in the garment industry, especially in Bangladesh.


Sandblasting, a method to make jeans look old or pre-worn using pressurised air and sand, is extremely dangerous for workers as it causes fatal silicosis and other respiratory diseases. As a network we have exposed the use of these methods in supply chains in a range of reports in 2010, 2012 and 2013. Our Killer Jeans campaign convinced over forty brands to ban sandblasting from their supply chains. Nevertheless up until today deeply hidden in supply chains sandblasting continues to occur, as well as alternatives with their own hazards, such as the use of chemicals for the same worn look. Research, media attention and training therefore continue to be needed and our network will continue to raise these issues.

Latest news on safety in the work place

Results: 104 Items

  • September 11, 2024

    Statement on the twelfth anniversary of the Ali Enterprises fire

    Twelve years ago, on 11 September 2012, over 250 people were killed in the garment industry’s most deadly factory fire ever. The Ali Enterprises factory in Karachi, Pakistan, burned to the ground with many workers trapped inside. On this day we commemorate all workers who didn’t survive and our thoughts are with all grieving families. Our commitment is to ensure this can never happen again.

  • April 24, 2024

    Remembering the Rana Plaza collapse

    Today, we commemorate that eleven years ago 1,138 people lost their lives in the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh. Our thoughts are with the people who lost loved ones in this tragedy and with every worker who lived through it. We will keep on fighting side by side with garment workers' unions to make clear that workers’ lives are not a commodity and can not be treated as disposable.

  • April 17, 2024

    11 years since the Rana Plaza collapse factories are safer but the root causes of tragedy persist

    24 April 2024 will mark the 11th anniversary of the fashion industry’s worst tragedy: the collapse of the Rana Plaza building, killing 1,138 people. The catastrophic death and injury toll was caused by a deadly mix of fashion brands ignoring dangerous factory conditions, poverty wages, and centrally, constraints on workers’ ability to organise collectively. While unprecedented progress has been made to make factories safer, the brutal crackdown on workers’ rights still unfolding in response to protests to increase the minimum wage has shown that apparel brands producing in Bangladesh are still failing to ensure that the basic rights of their workers are respected.

  • February 28, 2024

    Bleaching chemicals used on jeans have devastating effects on workers and environment

    A new report published today by Clean Clothes Campaign Turkey reveals the harmful effects of potassium permanganate (PP) bleaching of jeans on worker health and the environment. The report, which covers 44 brands, focuses on the impact of PP chemical use on worker health and environmental pollution in the Ergene Basin, which is now unsuitable for agricultural purposes.

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