Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-01-16-Speech-3-503-000"
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"en.20130116.40.3-503-000"2
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"Mr President, I also speak in my capacity as Chair of the delegation of the European Parliament which covers Bangladesh, among other countries. Along with others from my group, we would like to express our condolences to the families of those who have died in fires and other accidents in various textile factories and elsewhere. It is an issue, as we have said, which spreads beyond Bangladesh, even though that is our primary focus today.
We are well aware that squeezed profit margins do not only lead to pressure on wages but can also lead to shortcuts in safety, and we are concerned that many of the major companies who had contracts with the Tazreen factory did not want to acknowledge that at the time of the tragedy, even though the building had recently passed an evaluation by one of those major contractors.
We also welcome the response from the governments in Pakistan and Bangladesh in terms of compensation and commitment to the victims and their families, and we welcome the contribution that has been made by some overseas companies as well; we only wish there were more of them. My colleague has just referred to the outcome of the tripartite meeting yesterday: the ILO, the government, the employers and workers should be seen as positive in terms of commitment to act, to abide by the existing laws, regulations and procedures, and to see that those are properly implemented and that there are consequences if that does not happen. That is a clear responsibility: government.
It is also important, in our view, that there are active trade unions and labour rights’ activists such as Aminul Islam, who was recently murdered. It is essential to this process, as our history has shown, to have active trade unions on the ground working with health and safety committees and able to blow the whistle on employers who do not live up to their obligations. But those who have contracts there also have a crucial role in improving standards, and we regret that certain companies – Walmart is one that has been mentioned in the press – have been less than forthcoming and active in that role.
As consumers we should be confident that the clothes we wear have not put someone’s life at risk wherever they work, and I welcome what has been done by our delegation in Bangladesh and in other countries to improve labour standards and make sure that everybody is safe at work."@en1
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