Experts and labour leaders on Thursday said that the government and the global brands could play a crucial role in promoting responsible business conduct within the readymade garment supply chain by upholding national and international standards to enhance workers’ quality of life and social security.
At a roundtable on ‘Advancing human rights due diligence in Bangladesh’s RMG sector: responsibilities of MNEs and scope of trade union’ organised by the Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies held at the CIRDAP auditorium in the capital Dhaka, they said that trade unions have a crucial role in leveraging human rights due diligence instruments in the supply chain.
Multinational enterprises, brands and buyers should play an active role in ensuring the human rights of workers in the workplace by following the principles of international business responsibility, labour leaders said.
BILS has conducted a research on the issue of human rights due diligence in Bangladesh’s RMG sector, which focused on the basic understanding of the HRDD concept and its applicability in the context of the RMG industry in Bangladesh from the trade union perspective.
This study identified HRDD as a management tool that enabled enterprises to uphold their responsibility to respect human rights in accordance with the UN guiding principles, the ILO MNE declaration, OECD MNE guidelines, and the EU corporate sustainability due diligence directive.
It outlined the primary responsibilities of brands and buyers to respect and protect the human rights of workers and suppliers in Bangladesh, providing an analytical overview of effective remedy mechanisms aligned with recognised HRDD instruments.
The study also said that trade unions could play a key role in embedding responsible business conduct into policies, advocating for ratification and compliance, and actively participating in policy formulation.
Maulana Bhasani University of Science and Technology assistant professor Aurangzeb Akand presented the findings of the study.
International Labour Organisation country programme manager Mohamad Anis Agung Nugroho said that the ILO has been working at the grassroots level to support decent work, addressing fundamental principles and rights at work through its conventions, many of which the Bangladesh government has adopted.
Within the ILO system, there is a supervisory mechanism in place, and this week, the ILO governing body will meet to discuss related issues arising from workers’ complaints, he said.
Anis also said that previously, worker complaints regarding Bangladesh were submitted to this supervisory mechanism, which would be explained in further detail during this session.
The ILO official said that it was vital to recognise the environmental aspect as the new requirements called for businesses to mitigate any negative environmental impact.
H&M’s sustainability programme manager Prodip Gabriel Sku stated that they were focused on enforcing laws through auditing and assessments.
He highlighted the importance of enhancing institutional capacity to ensure responsible business conduct at all levels of the supply chain.
He added that a collective approach is essential to uphold workers’ rights across all factories, as a brand can only monitor compliance within its own suppliers’ factories.
Labour leaders at the event stressed the need for simplifying the process of implementing human rights by integrating the code of conduct and emphasised the importance of proper enforcement of labour laws.
The roundtable discussion was chaired by BILS vice-chairman Anwar Hossain and presided over by advisory council member Badal Khan.
Labour leaders and representatives from the government, the BGMEA and BKMEA attended the event.
Speakers included Danish embassy counsellor Ole Justin, BILS executive director Syed Sultan Uddin Ahmed, Ethical Trading Initiative country manager Abeel Bin Amin, labour leaders Rajekuzzaman Ratan, Shahidullah Badal, China Rahman and Nurul Islam.