Pressemeldungen - Unternehmensverantwortung & Lieferkettengesetz 20 April 2018 Never again Rana Plaza! Five years after the disaster, FEMNET calls for increased commitment from textile companies Video of the current campaign. © CCCFive years ago, the catastrophic factory collapse of Rana Plaza killed 1,134 workers. In order to further improve the security situation in Bangladesh's textile factories, the agreement on fire protection and building safety in Bangladesh is now being extended. The women's rights organization FEMNET calls on all Bangladeshi-producing fashion and textile companies to participate in this new contract. Long-standing demands of local trade unions were finally heard when, after the collapse of the factory building in 2013, international attention increased the pressure on the manufacturing companies. More than 220 companies signed the Bangladesh Accord, the first agreement on fire safety and building safety in the country, published the names of their suppliers in Bangladesh and made inspections possible there. Kalpona nude. Photo: © FEMNET“Rana Plaza was not an accident. This was a man-made catastrophe and would have been avoidable. Only the Accord agreement has made our factories much safer and saves lives", explains Kalpona Akter, who is one of the best-known activists in Bangladesh for the succession agreement. Since then, more than 1,600 factories with more than two million employees have been inspected. Investigation reports were published transparently for the first time. Of the more than 130,000 violations identified, around 84 percent were eliminated, and factories were closed in particularly serious cases. After more than one year of negotiations on the further development of the Accord Agreement, the follow-up agreement was agreed in the summer of 2017. More than 140 companies have already signed the Transition Accord, but many are still missing. Since the follow-up agreement is to include clothing as well as home textiles, FEMNET and the campaign for clean clothing also see corporations like Ikea in the obligation. Despite improvements in safety, however, working conditions have not improved, they were and are not part of the Accord. In particular, the statutory minimum wage has not been increased for five years and currently stands at EUR 52 per month. The unions are calling for a tripling. “As inflation has actually reduced wages by 8% in recent years, this demand from trade unions is rather moderate,” says Gisela Burckhardt, CEO of FEMNET. It goes on to state that: ‘Women trade unionists are still being criminalised and arrested in practice, subjected to threats and violence. For this to change, companies must urge their suppliers to ensure compliance with trade union rights’. Which companies have already signed the 2018 Accord and which have not. Campaign video Dr. Gisela Burckhardt stands for telephone interviews on the subject Five years of Rana Plaza available. Contact: FEMNET e.V. Katharina Edinger – Press and Public Relations Officer Kaiser-Friedrich-Straße 11, 53113 Bonn E-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., Tel. 0228- 90917309 FEMNET press release of 20.04.2018
