Swedish retail giant H&M on Tuesday signed
an agreement promising better labour rights for 1.6 million garment workers
at
its suppliers’ factories.
The deal, reached with international union IndustriALL Global Union and
Sweden’s IF Metall union, covers workers employed in 1,900 factories in
“countries such as Cambodia, Bangladesh, Myanmar and Turkey”, the three
organisations said in a statement.
It includes the right to unionise, refuse to work in dangerous conditions
and bargain collectively for better salaries.
Rights groups regularly denounce the global textile industry for poor
protection of its workers, nearly two thirds of whom are women.
In a disaster that cast a spotlight on poor rights and lax standards in
the
sector, more than 1,100 people were killed when Bangladesh’s Rana Plaza
factory collapsed in 2013.
The tragedy at the complex, which produced clothing for various
international chains, prompted sweeping reforms including new safety
inspections and higher wages.
H&M was not supplied by the factory but signed a deal in 2013 with
IndustriALL and Western competitors such as Zara to boost the safety of
Bangladeshi factories, and a rights deal the following year with the
International Labour Organization.
While the Swedish chain says it chooses its suppliers carefully, it has
acknowledged the difficulties of keeping a close eye on the factories that
churn out its millions of garments.
“Achieving 100 percent compliance with all our requirements amongst all
our
suppliers is a challenge,” H&M said in its 2014 Sustainability Report.
“Major challenges are health and safety, excessive overtime, wages,
freedom
of association and industrial relations.” (AFP)