WORKERS’ lives continue to be in danger due to the unsafe working conditions at Bangladesh’s shipbreaking yards.
Two accidents occurred on 12 January in two separate yards, killing one worker and severely injuring the other.
40-year old Rashedul Islam was killed at Tanseen Steels Ltd. after a rope used to pull a part of the ship from the sea, snapped and a heavy iron part hit him on the head. The accident took place at night which is against the safe work practices for shipbreaking.
In another accident, at APS Corporation, 35-year old Delwar was severely injured after a fire erupted while gas pipes were being cut inside the ship.
IndustriALL affiliates in Bangladesh, Bangladesh Metal Workers Federation (BMF) and Bangladesh Metal, Chemical, Garment and Tailor Workers Federation (BMCGTWF), are concerned about the safety of workers at the yards. Unions are currently assisting workers’ families to receive adequate compensation.
A. M. Nazimuddin, BMF president, says: ‘Frequent accidents at the yards are taking away workers’ lives but the employers and the government are not taking any safety measures. It’s their responsibility to ensure workplace safety. National and international laws for safer yards must be strictly implemented.’
Shipbreaking is one of the world’s most dangerous jobs, where workers toil in precarious and unsafe working conditions, involving low wages and long hours. According to data compiled by IndustriALL in 2022, there were at least 35 accidents in the shipbreaking yards, killing at least six workers and severly injuring 31.
IndustriALL shipbreaking industry director Walton Pantland, says: ‘These preventable and tragic accidents show why it is essential that Bangladesh ratifies the Hong Kong Convention this year. When the Convention comes into force, we can build a safe and sustainable ship recycling industry in South Asia.
‘Workers need to be represented by strong unions so that they have the power to refuse unsafe work and establish workplace safety committees.’
Some of the world’s biggest clothing retailers are offsetting surging costs for raw materials by squeezing their suppliers in Bangladesh, the world’s second-largest exporter of clothes, a new study by a group of British researchers funded by the University of Aberdeen’s Global Challenges Research Fund, alleges.
Based on a survey of 1,000 Bangladeshi factories/suppliers producing clothes for global fashion brands and retailers, this research highlights reports of unfair trading practices encountered by manufacturers during Covid-19.
Suppliers reported that retailers/brands cancelled orders, refused to pay for goods dispatched/in-process and demanded a reduction in price for orders already placed before March 2020.
Since then, they further pressured the suppliers to reduce prices. Suppliers reported that in December 2021, despite the rising costs of inputs and the additional costs of Covid-19 mitigation measures, 70% of brands/retailers were still buying garments at similar prices to those in March 2020 from at least some of their suppliers.
More than 50% of factories reported at least one of the following four unfair practices by brands/retailers: cancellation of orders, price reduction, refusal to pay for goods dispatched/in production and delaying payment of invoices.
Such unfair trading practices impacted suppliers’ employment practices resulting in worker turnover, loss of jobs and lower wages.
Importantly, one in five factories reported that they had struggled to pay the Bangladeshi legal minimum wages since the factories had reopened following the March and April 2020 lockdown.
Survey participants (1,000 suppliers) named 1,138 brands they were contracted to produce for in February 2020. The survey data shows that most brands/retailers bought from only one factory in our sample, with just 78 brands/retailers purchasing from four or more factories. Of the 1,138 brands/retailers named, 37% were reported as having engaged in unfair practices.
Twenty-five per cent reportedly cancelled/partially cancelled orders; 19% reduced the payment compared with the one in the contract; 10% refused to pay for goods in transit/production; and 24% delayed payments for goods already dispatched by more than three months.
However, the picture is somewhat different when we examine the suppliers’ experiences of unfair practices of the buyers with contracts with more factories. The larger brands were reported as likelier to engage in unfair practices than those buying from fewer factories.
Twenty nine per cent of brands purchasing from one factory were reported as engaging in unfair practices, 30% from those buying from three or fewer factories, 90% from those buying from four or more factories and 100% from those purchasing from 15 or more factories.
Of the 78 brands buying from four or more factories, 90% were reported as engaging in unfair practices. 86% as cancelling orders, 85% as reducing the price compared with the one agreed in the contract, 50% as refusing to pay for goods already in transit/production, and 85% as delaying payment for goods already dispatched for more than three months.
To further illustrate the impact of brands/retailers’ buying practices on the suppliers, we look in more detail at 22 brands/retailers that had contracts with 15 or more factories in our sample in March 2020. All were mentioned by one or more supplier as cancelling/partially cancelling orders, refusing to pay for goods in transit/production, and delaying payment for goods already dispatched for more than three months.
Based on suppliers’ reported experiences, 95% of their buyers had reduced the price compared to the one the goods were contracted at. Five brands/retailers were among the top 10 clothing retailers globally in 2020 for turnover. Inditex was ranked first, H&M third, Gap fourth, PVH sixth and Next eighth. The brands/retailers mentioned by our survey participants sell into the EU, UK, North American and/or Australian markets.
- Amid the country’s worst financial crisis, IndustriALL’s affiliates in Sri Lanka are demanding that the country’s debt is cancelled.
Echoing the call by over 180 economists and development experts across the globe to cancel Sri Lanka’s debt, IndustriALL’s affiliates are demanding that all bilateral, multilateral and private lenders share the burden of restructuring as the country cannot ensure this on its own and requires larger international support and solidarity.
Major lenders to Sri Lanka include Asian Development Bank, Japan, China and World Bank. Writing to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), are global labour organisations and workers’ rights groups.
‘Sri Lanka needs immediate relief from the external debt crisis. IMF must reach out to the lenders and create a responsible forum to help the country. The working class in Sri Lanka is in a pitiable state. Unfortunately, the government has failed to provide any relief to the poor in the 2023 budget,’ says Anton Marcus, joint secretary of Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union.
In a solidarity meeting organised by IndustriALL, affiliates voiced concerns about growing poverty coupled with increasing malnutrition among children and school dropouts due to unbearable economic hardship.
Affiliates demand that the government:
- immediately withdraw indirect and direct taxes on all essential food items;
- halt tariff increases immediately on power and energy;
- establish a national tri-partite council for economic reforms.
IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kemal Özkan says: ‘IndustriALL stands firmly with affiliates in Sri Lanka and fully support their demands. It is time for the international community to show its support by cancelling debts for a country where workers cannot afford two meals a day as the spiralling cost of living weighs heavily on them.’
