Living wage, the long-standing demand of the garment workers across the globe and especially in Bangladesh, does not seem to materialise anytime soon with only a handful of global brands and retailers reportedly signing a collaborative deal that seeks to ensure living wage for garment, textile and footwear workers, claimed media reports.

The agreement called ‘ACT’ (action, collaboration and transformation) – that aims to establish freedom of association and achieve living wage for workers through collective bargaining at industries linked to purchasing practices – was made between corporate signatories and IndustriAll Global Union in 2016.

So far, only 21 brands reportedly signed this deal, which are namely Arcadia, Asos, Bestseller, H&M, C&A, Cotton on, Esprit, Inditex, Kmart, NBrown, Lidl, Primark, Pentland, Debenhams, PVH, G-Star Raw, Tesco, Tchibo, New Look, Next and Zalando.

To achieve the desired target, ACT has reportedly started consultations with Bangladesh to explore the potential for future engagement.