Workers’ rights groups highlight H&M supplier among firms failing basic safety measures initiated after 2013 Rana Plaza disaster
By Sarah Butler
 |
Rescuers gather at the collapsed eight-storey
|
More than half of H&M’s top
suppliers based in Bangladesh
More than a third of H&M’s
top-rated “gold” and “platinum” graded suppliers have not removed sliding doors
and collapsible gates, according to a report by workers’ rights groups,
including the Clean
Clothes Campaign.
The report adds that 13% of
those suppliers have failed to take the basic step of removing locks from doors
which could impede workers escaping a fire.
More than 1,100 workers died in the collapse of Rana
Plaza in April 2013. The building housed several factories making
clothing for brands including Primark, Matalan and Benetton. The scale of the
disaster led to the creation of two international coalitions designed to assess and help
fund improvements to
building and fire safety at thousands of garment factories in Bangladesh
Most European retailers signed
up to the Accord on
Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which oversees more than
1,600 factories used by stores such as H&M, Marks & Spencer and
Primark.
The accord’s inspectors have
set out structural, electrical and fire-safety improvement plans for the
majority of the factories. But more than two and a half years on all but 10% of
those plans are behind schedule and only two were completed by December, the
time of the last progress report.
The accord’s list of factories
does not reveal the brands. H&M is one of only a handful of brands to
reveal a list of all its suppliers internationally, and campaigners have used
that to check up on its progress.
“We are particularly concerned
by the slow pace of those renovations that are most critical to saving lives in
the case of a fire,” said the report. “The hazards still waiting to be
addressed are life threatening in nature.”
Anna McMullen, from Labour
Behind the Label, a pressure group which is part of the Clean
Clothes network, praised H&M for revealing its list of suppliers enabling
third parties to check progress at the factories. But she said: “This huge
collaboration is not delivering on what it promised to do. Key brands need to
lead the way and the biggest bear most responsibility.”
A spokesperson for H&M
said: “Fire exits are one of the most fundamental requirements for a supplier,
in order to be allowed to produce for H&M. There have always been clear
escape routes in our supply chain although they are in the process of being
improved in accordance with new standards. We are in close dialogue with the
suppliers and are following up on the work that remains to be done.”
The spokesperson added: “We
continue to take a very active role within the accord and are following the
remediation plan progress closely. We see good progress, but to further speed
up the remediation we are currently working closely together with
[international trade union] IndustriALL with full transparency to use our
combined leverage where needed.”
An accord spokesman said that
it recognised that progress in making factories safer had been too slow and
that it had hired more than 30 engineers to speed up monitoring. It had also
sent out more than 200 formal warning letters to factories, which could entail
their being struck off as suppliers under the legally binding agreement.
Five factories were struck off
in December and one this month, taking the total to nine so far.
