5 things you should know about EU parliament voting on Bangladesh Sustainability compact

Members in plenary of European Parliament will adopt a Resolution tabled by the Committee on International Trade (INTA) on “The State-of-Play of the implementation of the Sustainability Compact in Bangladesh” on Wednesday (June 14).

Here are the five things you should know about the resolution.

1. INTA Members express concerns on lack of progress in a number of areas of the Sustainability Compact: Members of the committee on International Trade (INTA) prepared a resolution.  In the Resolution, INTA Members express concerns on lack of progress in a number of areas of the Sustainability Compact such as amending labour laws for guaranteeing the freedom of association and collective bargaining and in improving safety and working conditions and workers’ rights in the garment sector.
2. Improving safety and working conditions and workers’ rights in the garment sector should be considered as a matter of highest priority: The resolution calls on the Government of Bangladesh to enhance its level of engagement as regards improving safety and working conditions and workers’ rights in the garment sector as a matter of highest priority, and to enhance the implementation of the legislation on building and factory safety, to continue to increase government funding for the labour inspectorate, to continue to recruit and train more factory inspectors, to provide for conditions to lower the turnover of labour inspectors, to set up an annual work plan for follow-up inspections of factories subject to remediation, and to enlarge building and factory inspections to other sectors.
3. Prolonging the engagement of Accord for another five years : The resolution said that stresses the achievements of the engagement of the private business sector in cooperation with the Government of Bangladesh and international organizations in the country, through the Accord on Fire and Building Safety; points out, however, that despite marking progress on fire and building safety, the Accord partners still remain concerned with the slow pace of completing remediation on critical safety issues; calls on the parties to the Accord to prolong their engagement by means of it for another period of five years, before the current agreement comes to an end on 12 May 2018; invites the government, as well as the Bangladeshi business sector, to acknowledge the usefulness of the commitment of retailers in Bangladesh through the Accord, and to support the extension of the mandate given to the Accord partners in Bangladesh.
4. Uniform Labor Law: The resolution further urged the government to ensure that the law governing the EPZs allowed for full freedom of association in line with the same international standards.

5. Calls on the international brands and retailers and the Bangladeshi private sector to stay engaged : The resolution calls on the international brands and retailers and the Bangladeshi private sector in order to respect the labour laws and implement CSR measures, and to improve their record as regards responsible business practices, including ensuring decent working conditions for Bangladeshi garment workers, as well as facilitating the provision of transparent information on which factories are producing the goods and coordination mechanisms between relevant initiatives; encourages the continuation of the work of the global retailers and brands for the adoption of a unified code of conduct for factory audits in Bangladesh.

MOTION FOR RESOLUTION