In a special series of online discussions intended to inspire and inform action, IHRB and partners are examining the responsibilities of companies for the human rights of workers and affected communities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the second discussion, IHRB and The Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies at the University of California, Berkeley look at the impacts on workers of the disruption the coronavirus pandemic has triggered across global supply chains, with a special focus on Bangladesh.

Featuring:

• Nazma Akter - President, Sommilito Garment Sramik Federation, Bangladesh (Dhaka)
• Payal Jain, Head of Social Sustainability for Production, H & M (Hong Kong)
• Dina M Siddiqi - Clinical Associate Professor, New York University (NYC) 
• Ineke Zeldenrust - International Coordinator, Clean Clothes Campaign (Amsterdam)
• Sanchita Banerjee Saxena - Director, Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies, University of California, Berkeley (California)
• Salil Tripathi - Senior Advisor Global Issues, Institute for Human Rights and Business (NYC)

With last-minute apologies from: 

• Rubana Huq - Managing Director, Mohamedi Group, and president, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers' and Exporters' Association (Dhaka)

 

Hosted by

Co-hosted with the Subir and Malini Chowdhury Center for Bangladesh Studies, University of California, Berkeley 

 

 

Questions Submitted by Participants

IHRB received a number of excellent and wide-ranging questions for speakers in advance of the broadcast, as well as dozens more during the live discussion. We have shared those below to give a sense of the concerns that business, government, and civil society practitioners are grappling with in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At registration: 

• Should the Bangladeshi government act by addressing certain contractual clauses used in fashion? 
• What makes workers particularely vulnerable in Bangladesh, in relaiton to other neighbour countires?
• Do you visualise any change in the way business would be run post Covid? Specific to credit lending?
• 600+ factories now open amidst COVID, how can we ensure the safety of workers? 
• How can we ensure worker voices are heard given physical distancing and movement restriction?
• Would this be a good time for the Government to shut down the non-compliant factories ?
• Any employed or proposed initiatives regarding workplace safety, personal protection, and testing?
• how is digitalization and computervision helping apparel accelerate supply chains
• What lies ahead for the industry and textile workers in the ensuing global economic crisis?
• What practical solutions are there to protecting workers in this situation? 
• What are international retailers doing to protect garment workers' wages ?
• What has been the role of the Bangladesh Agreement during Covid?
• How do you turn this crisis as an opportunity minimize opportunity gaps while social distancing?
• What s(k buyers offered suppliers
• Both the crowded Rohingya refugee camps & surrounding host communities of Cox's Bazar are at risk...
• Can you trace back to the origins of order cancellations and hold retailer buyers accountable? 
• How to ensure focus on Bangla isn't at expense of garmnt wkrs in states lacking Bangla's PR prowess?
• Which is the most important context that you reccommend to focus now on Human Rights implication?
• Do the speakers have a call to action for members of the public? 
• Who should pay the garment workers? 
• What can western brands do, to ensure workers in the RMG sector have at minimum acceptable work cond
• How have global union federations (e.g. IndustriALL) responded to COVID-19's impact in Bangladesh?
• How can brands support their factories (excluding the order topu
• How would factories ensure their workers maintaining social distancing with densely seating arrangem
• How current wave of stigma, discrimination, racism and xenophobia would affect migrant labours
• Are buying companies doing enough to help Bangladesh?
• Since water fowl are a food source & high risk for incubating viruses, what can be done?.
• How do we harness the challenges?

During the live broadcast: 

• Really like Ineke's call for support in understanding where leverage and power can harnessed to deliver on strong enforcement mechanisms and to be built into trade systems. It would be great if someone can comment on how that can be built in WTO's mechanisms
• In order to give right place of the RMG workers in the equation of business and human rights, they should be made also shareholders giving them the voice in the business process!
• Just a comment! I think that Bangladeshi suppliers should stand together and refuse to produce for low bottom prices! That will change the landscape completely.
• How do I get in contact with RMG factories that are reliable ?
• How does the panel suggest that we avoid the brands taking control of the 'rescue' narrative, as arguably happened in the aftermath of RP?
• state capture also of the recruitment industry
• Do you think building resilience of the workforce becomes a way forward for building resilience of the sector and considering workers as a human capital by businesses and government will help
• Historically, the Government has been strongly linked to the sector, on a structural level and personal level (some politicians personally are tied to factory groups). Is it possible to expect the Bangladesh government to implement proper regulation when it ultimately profits from low regulation?
• I am from Jamaica, how can I get in contact with certified and credible/reliable RMG manufacturers ?
• Nazma's interjection was one of the most important things I have ever heard.
• To Payal: How can win-win-win be imagined as the labour cost is pre-calculated in each and every work orders placed in supplier / competing countries?
• and the price from the same brand varies between competing supplier counters.
• Could Ineke please comment on Rubana's point that the Central Fund is funding social protection? Where do things stand with the pilot project on employment injury insurance she mentioned?
• There should be a regulatory framework to be established by the government of Bangladesh to reflect the state's duty to respect human rights and the businesses duty to respect them. This is urgent!
• The state has the duty to protect human rights, but the businesses have also the duty to see that the human rights obligations are not violated by putting meaures in place, that they are respected.
• The safety-net measures by the importers and RMG industry owners should be part of business and human rights prescriptions of the UN.
• Is it time to call time on Pr like transparency league tables that perpetuate idea that one brand is better than other and the cure is to be found still in this system and cost model, rather than serious reform?
• Is it possible that the pandemic will trigger a further race to the bottom as manufacturers start competing with each other to attract whatever orders are left, hence entrenching the global power inequalities Dina mentioned?  Are panellists optimistic or pessimistic about the future?
• There is such huge disconnect between consumers and garment workers in the global supply chain. How would you suggest we can make more visible to the public the compounded crises of COVID-19 and gender inequalities in the garment industry to drive action?
• You should invite Nazma ji for her inputs on collective action?
• Is there real potential to make fundamental changes in the buyer-driven supply chain model to a worker-driven supply chain model which would include a cost-sharing model that provide a living wage and social protections?
• Question for Payal- anything specifically on the clauses? standard clauses?
• Why is the new Call to Action so gender blind? Despite the fact that 80% of workers are women, it does not mention gender once
• The government of Bangladesh should be the gatekeeper for the corporate behaviour including their social responsibility in Bangladesh, don't you think so?
• Do you think that the measures for social protection of the RMG workers by the brands (importers) could be part of their social responsibility? Should not the government of Bangladesh be responsible for not its reflection in the activities of the barnds involved?
• Ineke: The ways BGMEA, Bangladesh's government and the trade union federations are deeply engaged in negotiations to find ways to deal with the developing situations in Bangladesh -in this context- how the governments of where the brands are based are dealing with the brands? Is that an option even?
• An insurance scheme was launched before by the GIZ as experiment to factory like DBL but it failed to kick off in the industry due to failure of sharing the cost by all stakeholders. Is there any possibility to get back to that safety net?
• To all panellists: what do you think mass media could have done more to raise public awareness, and perhaps in turn, to help shape up the international/ local legislations for fostering accountability?
• Are there any guidelines provided by the brands to the manufacturers on how they should be operating due to the pandemic? That compliance is being maintained? If there already are guidance than how is it being monitored? By whom?
• Question for Payal: What clause or clauses would you want to see for the typical supply contract within the sector?
• Picking up on the question in the poll, how can greater awareness and choice be promoted amongst consumers? Consumers might be willing to pay more for garments (to create a safety net for workers and support greater transparency).
• is there ant pressure h&m to send shipment of pending orders?
• What is the role of trade union to ensure transparency of the disbursement of fund allocated by the government of Bangladesh as a loan to the suppliers for workers' wage?
• What should be key considerations for industry associations/organizations in Bangladesh in terms of policy advocacy with the Bangaldesh Government to improve the protection of workers in these times?
• What can business associations/compliance initiatives do to ensure that their member companies honour their contracts and commitments that they have signed up to - instead of 'cutting and running'?
• The problem of fact is the supply chain contracts which put the squeeze on.  The problem of law is allowing the situation to be entirely governed by a contractual process governed, as you rightly say, by inequality of bargaining power.   (No more from me)
• Some factories pay the wages regularly but what is the percentage comparing to the whole industry? How transparent the brands are? How do they ensure their supplier factories are not abusing human rights? What about suppliers in the lower tiers?
• How would brands expect suppliers to agree to implement their codes of conducts and submit to their monitoring programs ... When brands have not adhered to their side of business codes of conduct.
• There was a PSA by BGMEA President regarding salary payments. So sad it has not been implemented by all BGMEA members
• last question, I promise: what is the gender make up of the garment workforce?
• What is the ACCORD or the Alliance doing?
• Is there any system to economically protect workers who temporarily have no work to do because factory closed and is this based on employment status? Thank you.
• What could be the role of governments in US, EU to best assist workers and their livelihood? Some form of collaboration with factories or?
• What is the safety at work regime? Labour inspection?  Can an injunction be obtained?

 

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In a special series of online discussions intended to inspire and inform action, IHRB and partners examine the responsibilities of companies for the human rights of workers and affected communities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first in the series looks at the international policy context and the spotlight the pandemic has shone on modern employment relationships and social safety nets. The second analyses the crisis as it affects workers in global supply chains, with a special focus on Bangladesh. The third in the series focuses on the immediate human rights implications of trading commodities.