What have buyers committed to in Bangladesh, and why does the commitment look so Eurocentric?

Inditex, Primark, C&A and H&M announced today, May 13, they had agreed to what looks  a rather different agreement in Bangladesh from the one activists were insisting a few months ago was the minimum necessary for ensuring safety.  It also looks as if there’s a small battle transatlantic battle going on

Though the text of what is  now called the “Accord on Fire & Building Safety in Bangladesh (AFBSB) will not be released till May 15, the descriptions of it from PVH (also today, together with Tchibo,  agreeing it’s committed to the AFBSB) aren’t very like how the earlier Bangladesh Building & Fire Safety Agreement was being described by the activists.

Here’s what was being claimed in March 2012:

• -          Independent and publicly-disclosed building inspections directed by a chief inspector with no ties to the industry.
• -          Mandatory and time-bound factory renovations and reparations to eliminate building and fire hazards.
• -          Incentives to factories for compliance in the form of orders and fair product prices.
• -        Workers’ voice: workers can report health and safety hazards confidentially to the chief inspector or to mandatory health and safety committees in their own workplaces.
• -          A safety training program with trade union participation.

Here’s what PVH says they’re now committing to:

• -         The agreement expands to five years (from two) a fire and building safety program to be led by a multi-stakeholder task force for the purposes of establishing an in-factory training program; facilitating the creation of factory health and safety committees; reviewing existing building regulations and enforcement; developing a worker complaint process and mechanism for workers to report health and safety risks; and advising a lead Safety Inspector.
•  The Safety Inspector will design and implement a fire safety inspection program based on internationally recognized workplace safety standards. The Safety Inspector will also direct and oversee the various other elements of the program.
•  The program will be financed by the participating companies. PVH will commit up to $2.5 mn

The crucial differences are

• -          “publicly disclosed inspections”
• -       Commitments to involving unions
• -          “Incentives…in the form of orders and fair product prices”

All three were real stumbling blocks. H&M has disclosed its supplier lists publicly, but that’s not a convincing argument for others to follow. Unions are just too embryonic and controversial in Bangladesh to be mandatory in all this, and there has to be some other way of involving workers while the country moves to proper unions: getting unions is important – but nothing like as urgent as getting safe factories. And an open-ended commitment to giving factories orders was central to Gap’s rejection of the earlier agreement.

If those stumbling blocks are eliminated (or if the parties are still thrashing out the fine print of the agreement) we’ve probably got a deal that can move buyers and activists onto the serious business of making factories safe, as opposed to the silliness of activists bad-mouthing buyers, while buyers sit silent because they’re too grown up to submit people’s lives to megaphone diplomacy.

If enough people come on board. The oddity today has been that all the new signatories are European: while of the major buyers, it’s Gap, Walmart and Nike (American) and Li&Fung (Asian, but mentally American) who’ve not yet joined.

This might be just a matter of time zones, or  US Stock Exchange requirements (the  AFBSB still requires a substantial commitment from signatories) slowing down the announcement of decisions. Or it might be that the Europeans are announcing participation to put pressure on the American major non-signatories.

No-one’s answering their phones. But it’s pretty certain there’s still a lot of arguing going on behind the scenes.

What we don’t know is whether it’s about putting Gap’s name ahead of H&M’s. Or whether there are major buyers still refusing to come on board