Fashion chains in Bangladesh have agreed to sign up to a legally binding agreement to help finance fire safety and building improvements in the factories, following an order by the Bangladesh Government to allow the country's four million garment workers to form trade unions without permission from factory owners.
The government has allowed a raise on minimum wages for the country's factory workers and ease off laws on forming unions after the country suffered death of more than 1,100 people when the Rana Plaza building collapsed last month, The Guardian reports.
The plaza authorities some of whom have been detained said that the building owner added floors to the structure illegally and allowed the factories to install heavy equipment such as generators that the building was not designed to support.
According to the report, world's biggest fashion chains, including HandM, Zara, CandA, Tesco and Primark have signed accord to ensure that the basic standards of workplace safety in the 5,000 or more garment factories in Bangladesh are met after international firms working with local garment producers in Asia have criticized the factory conditions on a wide scale.
Textile minister Abdul Latif Siddiqui has said that labour should be justly appraised as he believes the living standard of the workers should be uplifted, adding that the industry needs to be saved but not by practicing slave labour.
Siddiqui also confirmed that the government has set up a new minimum wage board that will issue recommendations for pay raises within three months.
HandM spokesman has confirmed they will create an environment where building collapses or other accidents can be prevented with reasonable health and safety measures.
According to a research by the advocacy group International Labour Rights Forum, the minimum wages for garment workers were last raised by 80 percent to 25 pounds a month in 2010 following protests by workers while at least 1,800 garment workers have been killed in factory fires and building collapses in Bangladesh.
