The textile union has called on two leading Australian retailers who sell Bangladeshi manufactured clothing to immediately sign an accord on building safety in that country.
Several Australian retailers including Coles, Rivers and Forever New were named in a report by the ABC's Four Corners program, which highlighted poor pay and conditions faced by textile workers in Bangladesh.
The program heard allegations of terrible building conditions, workers being threatened with violence and exploitation.
http://au.news.yahoo.com/latest/a/-/newshome/17732768/union-urges-retailers-sign-safety-accord/
Coles and Rivers are yet to sign an accord on building safety in Bangladesh.
In a statement Coles said it had just one supplier in Bangladesh for a small Mix clothing order which will be completed in the next few weeks.
"Like all of our international suppliers, the factory working on this order has been audited to international standards and complies with our ethical sourcing policy," Coles said in a statement.
It said sourcing from Bangladesh had always been small.
"Coles does not intend to manufacture any further Mix clothing in Bangladesh but if we do in the future we will only source from factories that are accredited under our global ethical sourcing guidelines, and we will sign the Bangladesh Fire and Safety Agreement," the company said.
Greens consumer affairs spokeswoman Sarah Hanson-Young said a mandatory national scheme was needed to make Australian companies work towards improving conditions in foreign sweatshops."The real cost of Australia's cheap clothes isn't measured in dollars and cents, it's measured in human suffering," she said.
Coles should just sign the agreement instead of pulling the jobs out of community that needed them badly enough to put their lives on the line for few cents a day IMO.
