On April 24th 2013, the Rana Plaza in Bangladesh collapsed, causing the death of 1,134 garment factory workers. It was the worst deadliest structural accident in recorded history, and was a wake up call to the world regarding the dangerous conditions in Bangladeshi. Previous factory fires in 2012 and 2010 led to over a hundred casualties each, and Bangladesh’s ready-made garment factories were rife with serious safety hazards. In May of 2013, the world’s major retailers (including GAP, Walmart, and H&M among others) finally realized the severity (or more cynically, the potential negative publicity of worker deaths) and formed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. The Accord and Alliance were supposed to bring western retailers, Bangladeshi garment factories owners, and workers together for remediation of any safety issues discovered.

We have just reached the five year anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse. Both the Accord and Alliance were given five year terms to solve Bangladesh’s safety issues. The results have been mixed. A 2016 report by the International Labor institute found that about 50% of fire and electrical issues discovered had been solved. However, the total expenses for resolving all safety issues would come to close to $1 billion, and international aid agencies, western retailers and the Bangladeshi government have only provided a fraction of the financing necessary to accomplish all of this. At the same time, Bangladesh has not seen any massive accidents similar to the Rana Plaza collapse since the signing of the accords, and according to AsiaInspection, a Hong Kong based safety and compliance consultancy, levels of safety compliance in Bangladesh are higher than India or China.

We have reached the five year anniversary of the Rana Plaza collapse, and the government of Bangladesh has chosen not to renew the Accord or Alliance. Partly because it is seen as a violation of national sovereignty, partly because the move towards workers safety puts heavy financial burdens on Bangladeshi firms without commensurate compensation of western multinationals, and partly because of the overwhelming influence of garment makers on the Bangladeshi government. The improving worker safety in Bangladesh is likely to be a gradual affair with progress measured in decades rather than years.

This is a reintroduction to my podcast episode on the rise of the Bangladeshi garment industry and how it has transformed the Bangladeshi economy.