CSR is Successful and Sustainable Supply Chains
In May 2013 survivors were pulled out from the rubble of a building that collapsed near Dhaka, Bangladesh. The disaster killed more than 1,000 people and led to several international agreements intended to protect workers and require factories safety as part of their CSR framework.
Unfortunately, we need horrific tragedies to prompt strong public calls for CSR and security reforms. Bangladesh is the global apparel industry second-largest exporter of clothing after China. Its factories employ four million workers, supplying most global brand names and retail giants.
Approx. 90 percent of these workers are women, and they earn wages that are among the lowest in the developing world. Yet for them, a job in the garment industry is often the only job available and a possible step out of grinding poverty. Apparel wages in many countries, including Bangladesh, are usually higher than wages in alternative employment .
Lifting out of grueling poverty
However, the Rana Plaza tragedy has led to some beneficial changes. To protect their brands and reputations, American and European corporations have scrambled to reduce the risks of similar calamities. Several European companies have signed an Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh. The accords include binding commitments and financial obligations to make factories safer and submit them to regular independent inspectors. Major retailers in the United States have signed a similar but less-ambitious agreement known as the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.
Both groups have cooperated to establish a fire safety and structural integrity standard for the factories with which they do business. American companies have committed to completing inspections at more than 700 factories to assess their compliance with the new standard by the middle of this year. This will be a formidable task as there is a shortage of trained inspectors in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh is just one link in the global supply chain. As a result of globalization, almost every item bought by consumers in developed countries is produced at least in part by low-wage workers in developing countries. While it is true that these jobs have lifted many individuals out of grueling poverty, it is also true that many of them work in conditions that violate acceptable standards in the United States and other developed countries.
Self-regulation and voluntary codes of conduct
At the Bhutan CSR conference on the 1-3 October, 2014 experts will discuss acceptable standards for workplace safety and worker rights for all countries. We will develop a voluntary industry codes of conduct that cover a variety of CSR issues from condemning child labor, forced labor, discrimination, sexual abuse and dangerous work sites .
The conference will pinpoint the key weaknesses in monitoring and enforcement of agreed-upon standards in developing countries that lack the resources for effective enforcement programs. There are panel discussions and workshops on self-regulation and voluntary codes of conduct by small and large multinational companies. We will focus not only on the first-tier and possibly second-tier suppliers, but the complete supply chain which is much bigger than that.
Source: New York Times
