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Report

3 Sep 2014

Author:
Paul van der Heijden & Ruben Zandvliet, Hague Institute for Global Justice & Social Justice Expertise Center

Report reviews major initiatives to improve labour conditions in Bangladesh manufacturing industries

"Enforcement of Fundamental Labor Rights - The Network Approach: Closing the Governance Gaps in Low-Wage Manufacturing Industries", September 2014 

…For decades, the international community has criticized Bangladesh for failing to guarantee basic labor standards…Since the Tazreen…fire…and the [Rana Plaza collapse]…Bangladesh has become a “policy laboratory” for new ways to enforce fundamental labor rights. These responses…involve many stakeholders cooperating in different coalitions…This policy brief provides an overview and an analysis of the major initiatives that aim to improve labor conditions in Bangladesh. It assesses the main innovative features and presents policy recommendations… The brief argues that businesses with transnational supply chains should cast their labor commitments in a contractual form, following the…example of the Bangladesh Accord…For the [ILO]…it needs to evaluate whether there is a need to merge existing standards into one comprehensive instrument…Institutionally, the ILO should engage more directly with businesses…At the state level, there is a need to explore the possibility of an international factory inspectorate…