Fashion brands face criticism for failure to protect labour rights in Bangladesh

Fashion brands, including H&M and Zara, are facing criticism over their lack of action to protect workers' basic rights in Bangladesh, according to Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC).

One year after a violent crackdown by state actors and employers against Bangladeshi garment workers protesting for higher wages, 40,000 workers remain at risk of arrest due to repressive legal charges brought against them through blank arrest warrants, it said in a recent statement.

Campaigners, labour rights advocates and trade union representatives have launched an international campaign condemning the inaction of fashion brands and are calling for the 36 legal cases against worker groups and protesters to be dropped.

Anne Bienias, a lead campaigner for the CCC, is urging brands to take swift action: "Brands such as H&M and Zara have a responsibility to ensure that complaints against unnamed protesters cannot be used to intimidate workers and their representatives".

"The refusal of brands to support union-backed wage demands despite extreme poverty and their lack of willingness to get these cases dropped illustrates who profits from the status quo and who doesn't. Brands clearly do," Bienias said in the statement.

The CCC has linked 45 fashion brands to suppliers who filed charges in 36 cases against garment workers in Bangladesh and has been pressuring these brands for the past year to ensure the cases are dropped.

While some brands have taken initial steps to ensure suppliers drop false allegations, one year on, all brands and suppliers have failed to follow through and not a single case has been cleared.

The CCC is launching a new action tracker to expose which brands are linked to the outstanding warrants, including H&M, Zara, Next, Matalan, Levi's, Bestseller, and more.

Campaigners hope this tool will shed light on the industry's complicity and ensure brands follow through with suppliers to get the charges fully dropped.

The launch of this new coordinated effort to apply pressure on brands coincides with the anniversary of last year's widespread wage protests in Bangladesh.

Police and the military cracked down on protesting workers who expressed dissatisfaction over the disappointing outcome of the long-awaited minimum wage negotiations.

As a result of the violent police response, four workers lost their lives, hundreds were severely injured and 131 were arrested.

Kalpona Akter, president of the Bangladesh Garment and Industrial Workers Federation, said: "In an industry where union repression is rife, getting the cases dropped is just the first but very necessary step toward creating an industry where workers can live a decent life off their wages, and where barriers to freedom of association are removed. We won't live in fear. We are calling for living wages that support our families."