Clothing sector gets another death toll

  • Abrar A Apu, MSc

Recent death tragedies of clothing workers in Bangladesh, caused by fire and building collapse have crossed all records and this is the highest in the world now. The worst historical chapter has been added to our industrial sector with the death of more than 1127 workers and several hundred injured at Savar Industrial belt when 8-storey building ‘Rana Plaza’ collapsed. The building had five clothing factories with more than 3600 workers working inside during the accident. Since 1990 to 2012, estimated 571 workers were killed by fire accidents and collapse of buildings while between January’13 to May‘13 death toll rose to 1150. The international watch dogs have been scrutinizing these happenings. Bad to worst consequences are predicted for our clothing sector. Buyers have started searching for alternative destinations and apparel importing nations are reconsidering to put ban on GSP facilities and/or to impose several strict regulation or compliance issues. If the industry were eroded due to lack of compliance; the basic rights of workers; it would be the saddest misfortune for the whole nation. As Technical Team Leader of BTT, I have tried to analyze cause and effect of building collapse on the clothing sector of Bangladesh. I have worked already on two crucial issues ‘Fire Safety’ and ‘Labor Unrest’ for clothing sector which can be found in the BTT Dec’12 and Aug’10 issues respectively.



Introduction:





With estimated work force of 5 million and more than 5000 clothing factories, the country exported clothing items with worth of US$19.09 billion in the previous year, which is roughly 4% of the global demand. Clothing sector is the largest industrial sector in our country in respect to the contribution in national economy. But, the largest export sector has been facing several disastrous difficulties such as hartals, political violence, labor unrest, death of workers in industrial accidents. The sector has already been facing shortage of labors (30% labor shortage, means 1.4 million workers) and frequent industrial disasters are depleting the image of the sector and keeping the workers scared of life lose while they are working. The clothing sector is commonly ‘footloose industry’ in nature, and thus frequent industrial accidents compelling the clothing buyers to search and create new clothing production destinations if Bangladesh cannot improve its industrial safety scenario in near future.



Nature of Clothing industry:





Clothing industry is labor-intensive and footloose type of industry. Without abundant and available workforce a clothing sector in the country usually will not sustain. On the other hand, the industry is ‘gypsy’ in nature or so called footloose industry. As long as the basic feed elements of the industry are available at cheap price (i.e. labor wages, power) and abundant workforce in comparison with competitors, the industry sustains. Due to ‘gypsy’ nature, the clothing industry is now in Asia, with strong grip in Bangladesh after travelling from the USA to Europe to Japan, Korea, from Singapore to China, India, and Pakistan. If any other country starts to offer cheaper sewing price with huge available workforce, our clothing industry will stitch to the new destination.



Clothing Sector at a Glance:





The clothing sector started journey in 1978. Available official record shows that in 1983-84 only 134 clothing factories employed approximately 40000 workers and earned only US$ 31.57 million, which was only 3.9% of the country’s total exports. After three decades, the clothing sector griped more than 77% of national exports (BGMEA) and contributes along 17% of country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Products). This sector accounts for 45% of all industrial employment.



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Fig1: Contribution of T& C industry in GDP (2011-2012)


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Fig2: Contribution of Clothing sector in Export (2011-2012)


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Fig3: showing labor-force and export value since 2003 to 2012


The figures having consecutive ten years data show that this clothing sector has been keeping its consistent growth in terms of exports, clothing units and workers. New York based consultancy McKensey, Company predicted by 2020 the export would cross US$ 42 billion, and the sector would need 9 million workers. This sector in its journey has faced several critical problems like quota omission, death of workers due to fire, building collapse and unrest for wages increment. The industry has kept its positive growth even after such major hurdles. Two deadliest catastrophic accidents in our clothing history within very short time have created doubt on the consistent growth to catch predicted market of US$ 42 billion by 2020.



Players of Clothing Industry:





Textile-clothing industrial chain is one of the largest chains where several players and actors are directly involved. 5 million directly employed labor force are feeding minimum of 25 million people (in general, a worker has a family of 5) directly. Again these 25 million people are supported by several million people in fulfilling their numerous different kind of needs and demands from foods to transports, to schooling to entertainments and so on.



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Fig4: Important players of Clothing Sector


Clothing industry has to deal with very complex compliance issues, due to being one of the most labor-intensive sectors. Few vital issues are directly involved with clothing production environment which can be explained with the following figure:



 

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Fig5: Vital issues in Clothing Production Environment


Accidents and casualties:





Along with industrial growth, the industrial accidents have also increased tremendously. The following chart is generated with data collected from different liable sources.



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Fig6: Causalities in Clothing Sector in 1990-2011, 2012 and 2013 till May


Spectrum Garments Tragedy: On 11th April 2005, an 8-storey industrial building situated in Savar industrial belt collapsed which killed 64 workers and critically injured several hundreds. Several of them have become physically disable. Shahriar Fabrics Industries Ltd. and Spectrum Sweater Factories were housed in the building. The building was erected on a flood-prone marshland without proper permission from the authorities.



Savar Tragedy: On 24th April 2013, a 9-storey industrial building situated in the same industrial belt collapsed where more than 3200 clothing workers were working. The accident was the deadliest in Bangladesh history, which smashed more than 1100 people, and injured several hundreds. This building was also constructed several floors without proper permission from authorities.



 Table: Year wise accidental record for Textile and Clothing sector of Bangladesh











































































































































































































































































YearAccidentName of the IndustriesCausalities
1990FireSareka GarmentsKilled: 32
1996FireLusaka GarmentsKilled: 2
1997FireRahman& Rahman ApparelsKilled: 22
FireTamanna GarmentsKilled: 27
FireNouvelle Garment, Florence Fabric

& Modern Garment
Killed: 5 workers

Injured: 50 workers
2000FireChowdury KnitwearKilled: 53, Injured: 150
2001FireMaico SweaterKilled: 24
2002FireGlobe KnittingKilled12
2004FireMisco Supermarket buildingKilled: 9
2005Building collapseSpectrum factoryKilled: 64, Injured: 64
FireShan KnittingKilled: 23
2006FireKTS FabricsKilled: 63, Injured: 150
FireJamuna Spinning MillKilled: 6
FirePhoenix FabricsKilled: 21, Injured: 50
Light bulb burstSayem FashionKilled: 6, Injured: 50
2010FireGarib& Garib SweaterKilled: 21, Injured: 10
FireHameem groupKilled: 26, Injured: 100
2011FireEurotexKilled: 2, Injured: 62
2012FireTazreenKilled: 117, Injured: 300
2013FireSmart FashionKilled: 10, Injured: 35
Building CollapseRana Plaza, a house of 5 clothing unitsKilled: 1135

Injured: 1000
FireTung Hai Sweater FactoryKilled: 8


According to the survey report of BGMEA, a total of 168 fire incidents happened in RMG units from 1990 to October 2009. The toll of deceased recorded to be 222 in 19 factories. The report said ‘One garment factory blazed in 1990, three in 1995, one in 1996, six in 1997, four in 1998, 16 in 1999, 19 in 2000, 23 in 2001, 09 in 2002, 15 in 2003, 16 in 2004, nine in 2005, 15 in 2006, fourteen in 2007 six in 2008, ten in 2009 and four in 2010’. The survey recorded 47 fire incidents from 2006 to January 2010. Of the total, 10 took place due to electric short circuits and the rest are termed as ‘unknown reasons’.



Estimated impact of Savar Tragedy:





A recent report published in a Bangla Textile Magazine ‘Muslin’ depicted the impact of Savar Tragedy. Based on that report, below table is showing that an immediate loss of around 3.5 billion USD has been caused by the accident along with other medium to long term losses. Loss of lives can never be compensated with monetary value and so whatever the monetary loss figure is life loss is the highest loss. But below figures are for industry owners, government and all other concerned to think how such an accident can have its toll from many aspect along with huge monetary impact.















































































Table: Short term estimated monetary loss due to Rana Plaza collapse.
DescriptionEstimated Monetary Loss (in million BDT)
Five RMG factory, Bank, Shops collapsed & damaged1000
Vehicle, Offices, Shops & Factories torched and vandalised in after shock protests4000
Foreign Currency lost due to factories closed for 5 days25350
Foreign Currency lost due o orders cancelled and shifted to other country240000
The dead and paralyzed Labor would have earned in whole life4458
Cost of compensation to the dead & injured1014
Total Short Term Loss275822


The country is already facing short to medium run impact of the collapse and the long run impact could be so devastating that the whole industry can be lost due to it if real pragmatic effort is not taken in time. This issues ‘Cover Plus’ articles and other Analysis would focus on that.



Compliance Challenges:





McKinsey & Company identified that compliance in labor standards is one of the greatest challenges for Bangladesh to remain on the path of growth. Labor unrest, labor killing in violence, fire and industrial building collapse, poor wage structure, unethical treating of labors in the industry premises have compelled international non-governmental organizations to keep Bangladesh under close scrutiny (world Bank notes).Many factories do not even have basic safety features such as fire escapes (Worker Rights Consortium).



Clothing sector is labor intensive. Maintaining social security or compliance is a principal hurdle in the clothing industry not only in Bangladesh but also globally, due to working with highly flammable materials (cotton & synthetics) comparatively in densely crowded place. Most national and international experts felt that the clothing sector of Bangladesh had made progress in compliance standard but that is not yet enough to stop such accidents and casualties. This sector has been facing compliance challenges due to multi-fold reasons. Estimated 65-70% of the clothing factories operate in rented buildings and many of these buildings are in residential areas with residential building factor. No specialized industrial zone available for this sector but available in competing countries like India, Sri Lanka, China and Pakistan. There are several internal and external factors that have direct influence in failure to implement compliances in industries. Internal factor of the industries can be included as non-existence of the compliance department, (many factories have it) which is usually considered by the owners as a department of wasting money without gaining any instant financial benefit. The company may not have appropriate experts having sound knowledge on the issue, and dearth caused by lack of moral and ethical sense among mid-level managers who directly control workers. External factors are - lack of concerned organizations that may conduct awareness and enforcement programs through relevant industrial organizations (say, BKMEA, BGMEA, BTMA, GOB etc.), lack of proper training institutes and government concerns, lack of research organizations on relevant issues, no common platform to share experiences and therefore no logical  or structural recommendations for better implementation of the concepts.



Reactions of Stakeholders after Savar Tragedy:





After the accidents either by fire or building collapse, national and international reactions are logical and very natural, as this industrial supply chain is one of the largest and complex chains where many stakeholders are involved in home and abroad.



After the Savar Tragedy, several severe warnings have been addressed from stakeholders. Internal stakeholders such as labor unions, human right wings, non-governmental organizations (NGO) and etc. have raised their voice for:





  1. Labors demonstrated for Trade unions, wages increment and life insurance of workers


  2. Buyers’ community wanted to see credible actions and implementation of existed laws from government. It is government’s duty to ensure building safety


  3. Clothing manufacturers are ignoring standards, and the government doesn’t enforce them (Worker Rights Consortium)


  4. Buyers have advised the BGMEA, BKMEA and Government to form regulatory team to inspect vital industrial compliance issues like building code and working environment


  5. The US and Europe have threaten to withdraw GSP facilities




 



Measures to be taken:





Premier stockholder along with several volunteered organizations and NGOs have been working for a long period of time, but still the consecutive accidents in the clothing sectors have proved that the compliance conditions have not been improved up to the mark. Not only buyers but also facility providing countries have showed their dissatisfaction and thinking of boycotting sourcing from Bangladesh. It is the right time and final chance for the country to improve the compliance conditions in the clothing industrial sector.



-The concerned authority may take initiative in grading clothing manufacturing units (say A-grade best performer and F-grade worst performer) as per performance and standard. Respective authority can formulate standard by taking help from well-experienced standard setting bodies, experts, researchers and academics.



-The third party or independent body should be given first priority for auditing, inspection and certification rather than first party (self-evaluation) and second party (BGMEA inspection and certification)



-A consortium can be formulated with BGMEA, Buyers and Government representatives. The consortium provides first hand information to any buyer for its supplier’s factory and activity status.



- Fair Trade concept should be implemented to better up social and environmental conditions in factory premises as well as workers’ living areas.  Fair Trade concept encourages buyer, manufacturer and workers to form a collective fund from premiums earned from each clothing items under close supervision of third party. When traditional trade fails to ensure basic rights of labors, then the Fair Trade principles have the answer. Under the concept, the collected premiums are devoted to labor welfare and development causes.



Conclusion:





Savar Tragedy may play a vital role of game changer. Reactions, initiatives, and measures have taken from buyers, manufacturers, local governments, labor organizations, and NGOs may show good paths for manufacturing and business of clothing to every nation active in clothing. Example of capital punishment of clothing factory owners may raise mixed reflections from interest groups. This example will discourage less prepared owners to invest in clothing business fearing of such punishment if an accident occurs. It will be a warning for the irresponsible and insincere owners. Again, honest and sincere business cannot be flourished under poor law and orders in a corrupted environment. Activation of workers union in the factory premises would be a new challenge in the clothing sector.

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