Three organizations have lodged complaints against Amazon and Ikea. The accusation: They should not comply with human rights due diligence in their supply chains.
This article lies IPPEN.MEDIA as part of a cooperation with ESG.Table Professional Briefing before – first published him ESG.Table on April 24, 2023.
Berlin – Three organizations have filed a complaint against Amazon and Ikea with the responsible Federal Office of Economics and Export Control (BAFA) on the basis of the new German supply chain law. The organizations involved are FEMNET, the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) and the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) from Bangladesh. The complaints lie Table.Media before.
From the point of view of the complainants, companies would have to join the International Agreement on Health and Safety in the Textile Industry (Bangladesh Accord) in order to comply with their human rights due diligence obligations as they result from the German Supply Chain Act. “We are convinced that failure to sign constitutes a violation of corporate due diligence,” says Miriam Saage-Maass, lawyer and Legal Director of ECCHR. The law came into force at the beginning of the year and also applies to foreign companies in Germany with more than 3,000 employees in Germany.
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The BAFA did not want to confirm the receipt of the complaint on request and said, “in general, every complaint is thoroughly and individually examined by BAFA”. The authority always checks “whether the complaint is substantiated”.
Still unsafe factories in Bangladesh
In support of the complaint, NGWF President Amirul Haque Amin said, ten years after Rana Plaza there are still factories in Bangladesh that produce for international corporations such as Amazon or Ikea, “where there are hardly any security controls”. According to the complaint, freedom of association is not guaranteed in supplier factories and workers are afraid to complain.
Rana Plaza: Ten years after the tragedy
In April 2013, the multi-storey Rana Plaza factory building near the capital Dhaka collapsed in Bangladesh, where many international clothing companies had their fashions sewn at the time. More than 1100 people lost their lives in the disaster. As a result of the tragedy, the working conditions of the textile workers in the South Asian country were also heavily criticized abroad. It led Bangladesh to tighten controls on factory buildings and raise wages. The tragedy became a byword for the abuses in the supply chains of the global apparel industry.
According to organizations, this is the result of a study by the union among employees of export factories that manufacture for Amazon and Ikea and are not part of the Accord and the successor agreement. However, the study is not yet complete and unpublished. According to the International Trade Union Confederation’s Rights Index, Bangladesh is one of the ten countries with the worst conditions for workers.
IKEA wants to continue to rely on “own systems”.
IKEA shares Table.Media saying it welcomes commitments to improve standards and working conditions in the manufacturing sector, “but will remain independent of the international agreement.” The company relies on “proprietary systems, based on decades of experience and collaboration with thousands of suppliers around the world” and put Ikea “in the best position to further improve and strengthen conditions in the production sector and beyond”. Amazon didn’t respond Table.Media-Inquiry.
After the Rana Plaza accident, brands, trade unions and NGOs founded the so-called Bangladesh Accord to remedy deficiencies in building safety and fire protection in Bangladesh. Independent inspectors had inspected more than 1,600 factories and identified more than 120,000 safety risks. In September 2021, the successor agreement came into force, which has now been signed by 195 companies. It has also been extended to Pakistan, although only 45 companies have taken part so far, including C&A and the Otto Group. The NGO Inkota is now calling for the Accord to be extended to tanneries, shoe and leather factories.
It is time to “use German law to finally oblige companies that do not want to voluntarily take responsibility for the people in their supply chains to do so,” said Gisela Burkhardt, CEO of FEMNET. The NGO pointed out their view of things to Ikea and Amazon at the end of 2022. Ikea referred to other standards. According to the NGO, Amazon did not respond at all.
From Caspar Dohmen for ESG.Table
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