Femnet e.V.

Pressemeldungen - Unternehmensverantwortung & Lieferkettengesetz

24 April 2023 First complaint case filed under German Supply Chain Act

Joint press release by FEMNET, NGWF and ECCHR

"10 years after Rana Plaza, there are still factories in Bangladesh that produce clothing for international companies such as Amazon, IKEA or Tom Tailor, where there are hardly any security controls. We can no longer accept that," says Amirul Haque Amin, President and Co-Founder of the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF).

FEMNET, ECCHR and NGWF submit the first complaint against Amazon and IKEA to a German authority, the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA), on the basis of the Supply Chain Act, which entered into force in January 2023. This is based on a research carried out by the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) in Bangladesh in March 2023, which identified safety deficiencies such as lack of inspections, but also other labour rights violations such as lack of trade union freedom.

And this despite the fact that there has been an effective mechanism to improve workplace safety since 2013, the Bangladesh Accord, to which 195 companies have already signed. The ‘Bangladesh Building Security and Fire Protection Agreement’ was a reaction to the collapse of the Rana Plaza building exactly 10 years ago, in which 1,138 people died while sewing for international brands. However, leading companies producing in Bangladesh have not yet signed the agreement or its successor. "Now is the time to use the German law to finally commit companies that do not voluntarily take responsibility for the people in their supply chains," says Dr Gisela Burckhardt, CEO of FEMNET and human rights expert in the apparel industry.

Together with ECCHR, which fights corporate human rights abuses through legal means, FEMNET supports the Bangladeshi trade union NGWF in its complaint. “We are convinced that the Failure to sign constitutes a breach of corporate due diligence“, said Dr Miriam Saage-Maaß, lawyer and legal director of ECCHR. “Now it is up to the competent German authority, the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control, to examine the complaint. We very much hope that the authority will ensure that German companies will no longer contribute to deadly disasters such as Rana Plaza through their business practices in the future.”

 

Press contact:

FEMNET

Anne Munzert
Tel.: +49 0175 846 5560
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www.femnet.de/lieferkettengesetz

ECCHR

Maria Bause
Tel.: +49 30 69 81 97 97
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www.ecchr.eu

 

 

FEMNET is a women's rights organization based in Bonn, Germany, which has been working to improve working conditions in the global textile industry since 2007. This European Center for Constitutional an Human Rights (ECCHR) is a non-profit and independent organization based in Berlin, which has been advocating for human rights with legal means since 2007. The National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) is the largest trade union in Bangladesh and has been committed to the rights and human dignity of workers in the country's export-oriented apparel industry since 1984.