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On 24 April 2013, the world watched in astonishment and shame as horror of the Rana Plaza building collapse was broadcast across the world’s media. This was where the race to the bottom had led the garment industry: factories housed in unsafe buildings and workers afraid to enter a workplace with visible cracks in the walls, but even more afraid to lose their wages if they refused. The Rana Plaza collapse was a moment in which all pledged to do better and to start respecting the lives of the women and men working long hours for low pay to make our clothes. Five years on, we take stock. This memo aims to give an overview of the promises made in 2013, and what has – and has not – changed following the world’s worst ever garment factory disaster. It also serves as a guide to the excellent pieces of research that have become available at this moment of retrospection for labour rights in the garment industry.

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Despite being the second largest exporter of clothing, and the location of some of the worst recent factory disasters, Bangladesh is one of only a handful of countries that entirely fails to provide for a national employment injury scheme for workers who are injured in private workplaces. This position paper makes the case for swift action to put in place a national employment injury insurance system in Bangladesh, with a bridging solution to serve as a stepping stone and to support workers and their families affected by factory incidents since the Rana Plaza collapse.

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The Vietnamese garment industry is the country’s second largest exporting industry, following electronics, and accounts for 15 percent of the country’s GDP and 20.77 percent of its total exports in 2014. The U.S is the biggest market for garments from Vietnam, while Japan and the EU come second and third, respectively. According to the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) Convention 87 on Freedom of Association and ILO Convention 98 on Protection of the Right to Organise, Vietnam has not ratified worker’s rights. Freedom of association remains the most challenging problem for Vietnam. Workers are not allowed to establish independent trade unions of their choice, as all enterprise unions must be affiliated to the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour, the only recognised union in the country. At the grassroots level, it is common to find enterprise union leadership dominated by high-ranking managers and collective bargaining agreements that are copied from the labour legislation.

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Garment and textile is the second biggest exporting industry in Vietnam, after electronics, accounting for 15 percent of the country’s GDP and 14 percent of its total exports in 2015. The United States is the biggest market for garments from Vietnam while Japan and the European Union EU come second and third respectively.

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The clothing and textile industry offers style and functionality. It sells dreams and provides a stage for self-expression. But the industry produces an environmental impact which is far from sustainable. Looking at the environmental challenges in this sector, WWF is asking: How will fashion brands fulfil customers’ dreams in the future while contributing to the well-being of society and the environment at large? Doing ‘business as usual’ will not be an option for the industry nor for the planet in the long run. To stay financially successful, companies will find it necessary to reduce their environmental impact and to respect the ecological boundaries of our planet. WWF’s vision is that the clothing and textile industry contributes to a world in which humans live in harmony with nature. There is a long way to go to make this vision come true, but WWF believes it to be possible, if the industry takes bold action and leadership for transformation. This report shows how frontrunners are improving the environmental performance of their value chain, and how they are adopting innovative business models which could reduce the sector’s impact on the environment drastically. These innovations, in combination with disruptive global mega-trends such as digitalization, indicate that the clothing and textile industry is at the brink of radical transformation. It is time to use these transformative dynamics to create a radically different and more sustainable clothing and textile industry.

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