On the one-year anniversary of the collapse of the Bangladesh clothing factory that killed more than 1,130 people, World Vision, the international child advocacy group, is calling on Canadians to support and expand an international accord on factory safety.
The disaster led to the creation of the Bangladesh Fire and Building Safety Accord, which includes commitments for companies to have independent safety inspections and, if problems are found, to undertake repairs. Over 150 clothing companies, mostly from the European Union, have signed onto the agreement.
“We are calling for the public to sign a petition that encourages major Canadian companies to sign on for this Bangladesh Accord. Loblaws is the only Canadian company that we are aware that has done this,” Dave Toycen, president of World Vision Canada, told reporters at a news conference in Ottawa on Wednesday.
Canadian and American companies have opted to create the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a safety initiative described by the group as “a binding, five-year undertaking that will be transparent, results-oriented, measurable, and verifiable with the intent of improving safety in Bangladesh.”
An Ipsos Reid poll commissioned by World Vision on the anniversary of the collapse found 88 percent of Canadians support the accord and another 85 percent feel that Canadian retailers should sign.
Toycen, who recently returned from a trip to Bangladesh, acknowledged that although some progress has been made, the number of factories with unsafe child labour and adult labour practices is still high.
“Our greatest concern is subcontractors that in many cases are off the radar,” he said. “No one is monitoring that area. In fact, no one in the investigations that we did has a number of workers that are involved.”
Bangladesh has allowed over 140 unions to register in the country, the U.S. state department noted in a release marking the anniversary.
“We have the same concern for other countries as well and so this accord agreement is going to have to expand I think to a number of countries or it is just going to move around,” said Toycen.
The poll also found that 87 percent of Canadians think that companies should be legally obligated to provide consumers with information on working conditions in factories, wages paid, and commit not to use child labour.
“Sometimes as Canadians we look for labels on our shirts and shoes, but unfortunately, that label won’t tell us much of anything, “said Wendy Therrien, director of policy with World Vision Canada.
Therrien cited a recent trip to an Albanian shoe factory where she met a girl who had been working illegally at the factory since age 15 making shoes for export.
“The labels on the shoes she made said made in Greece, Italy, and Spain. They did not say made in Albania,” said Therrien.
“It is one example of the shroud of fog that surrounds the supply chain that makes it impossible for Canadians like you and me to get the information that we want to have to make ethical choices around shoes.”
Kaven Baker-Voakes is a freelance journalist based in Ottawa.
