In 2006, a group of Bangladeshis who had all been involved with the readymade garment sector in one way or another for years were recruited by a Bangladeshi-German project to design and implement a social compliance training course and manual reflecting the reality of the Bangladeshi garment industry and in line with the Bangladesh Labour Law 2006. The result was a path-breaking action-learning programme that has transformed “social compliance” from an esoteric foreign concept into a household word. by Marianne Scholte
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| Women playing Ludo at Awaj Foundation Women's Café |
Md. Manjur Morshed was one of the people carrying out
social compliance audits for major European and US apparel brands. He inspected
hundreds of garment factories in Bangladesh, but grew increasingly frustrated
with the limitations placed on him as an auditor. As he explains, “Even by the
mid-2000s, no one knew what social compliance was. But it was a conflict of
interest for me as an auditor to advise the factories. I could not tell them
how to improve their violations, never suggest anything, not even training. And
in any case, the only social compliance training available was outside the
country and it was costly. I wanted to contribute more.”
Shatil Ara worked part-time as a third-party auditor
in order to finance her university studies. Like Morshed, she found that most
companies had no idea what social compliance was. Two Korean companies for whom
she carried out audits asked her to translate their code of conduct and
Bangladesh’s labour laws into Bangla and to design a training programme to help
companies comply with these. “My training programme was totally bookish,” she
admits.
In 2007, Saifullah, Morshed, and Ara were among the
people recruited to develop a comprehensive social compliance training programme
for the Bangladesh readymade garment (RMG) sector – a programme that is today
used throughout the sector by RMG factories, trade associations, NGOs, training
institutes, and universities and has played a key role in raising awareness and
improving working conditions throughout the sector.
