On May 19, 2019, the Appellate Court of the Bangladesh High Court accepted a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached earlier this month between the Bangladesh Accord Steering Committee and the Bangladesh employers’ association in the ready-made garment sector, BGMEA. The MoU stipulates that the Accord will continue to operate in Bangladesh for a transition period of 281 working days, during which time brands, unions and the BGMEA will establish a new institution called the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC), which will take over the Accord’s tasks in 2020.

Today marks the 6th anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, which killed more than 1,100 garment workers and injured over 2,000 others. One positive outcome of this preventable tragedy was the creation of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which provides for independent factory safety inspections, transparent remediation of factory safety hazards, an anonymous complaints process, and health and safety training for workers.

On May 31, 2018, the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly ratified the Special Law for the Regulation and Installation of Nurseries for Workers’ Children. During an August 2018 roundtable, management representatives from Salvadoran maquila factories requested more detailed analysis on the implications of the new law for employers. In response, the Coalition for Decent Work for Women (CEDM) and the Americas Group (AG) contracted Ena Nuñez, an independent legal consultant and expert on labour issues, to prepare this document.

On April 8, the Canadian government announced the appointment of the long-awaited Canadian Ombudsperson for Responsible Enterprise (CORE), but failed to live up to its commitment to grant the position the necessary independence and power to investigate abuses and redress harm caused by Canadian mining, oil and gas, and garment companies operating abroad. Several human rights, union, labour, international development and faith organizations have voiced their dismay over the announcement.

On March 16, Sandra Ramos, leader of the Maria Elena Cuadra Movement of Working and Unemployed Women (MEC), was arbitrarily detained along with more than 100 other participants in a peaceful demonstration demanding the release of all political prisoners in Nicaragua, as a condition for a resumption of negotiations for a resolution to the conflict in the country. After eight hours in custody, she and the other detainees were released.

Three years after worker rights violations were first reported by labour rights advocates to Gap and other brand buyers, their Morelos-based supplier closed the factory rather than reinstate workers fired who had been attempting to form an independent union. The last remaining workers were dismissed in December 2018. 

A new minimum wage of 8,000 Taka (US$94), which came into effect on December 9, was rejected by workers and their unions asserting that the increase, the first of its kind since 2013, did not cover the rise in prices over the last five years. Bangladeshi unions, including those in the IndustriALL Bangladesh Council, have been demanding a monthly minimum wage of 16,000 taka (US$191).

On November 29, the Bangladesh High Court conducted a hearing following the appeal filed by the Bangladesh Accord against the restraining order on its Bangladesh operations. The restraining order was due to take effect today. A new hearing by the High Court was subsequently re-scheduled twice and will now take place on December 17, and the restraining order has been lifted until that date. The hearings have taken place amidst mounting international pressure and calls from the international community for the permanent removal of the order.

On September 13, after several months of delays, the government-appointed Bangladesh Minimum Wage Board finally announced the new monthly minimum wage of 8,000 taka (US$95), an increase of only 2700 taka (US$32) from the previous amount, which has remained the same since 2013.

Senior management at Rintex, a garment factory in Mexico’s State of Morelos, are reportedly blaming workers that attempted to organize for better working conditions for the decision of its major buyer, Gap Inc., to end its business relationship with the factory.

A Municipal Court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia has dropped all charges against well-known worker rights advocate Moeun Tola. Tola is the Executive Director of the Centre for the Alliance of Human and Labour Rights (CENTRAL). This decision comes after a six-month long legal process and persistent national and international pressure.

One week before the fifth anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster, Global Unions and NGO witness signatories to the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety are calling on international apparel brands to sign on to the Accord’s independent factory inspection program for another three years.

85 national and international human and labour rights organizations and global unions from around the world have joined together to call for an end to the politically motivated prosecution of Cambodian human rights defender, Moeun Tola.

As the end of the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety’s mandate draws near, with only 100 days remaining, brands and retailers are being urged to sign the renewed Accord for three more years.

The global union signatories to the Accord, IndustriALL and UNI, and the four witness signatories, Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labor Rights Forum, Maquila Solidarity Network and Worker Rights Consortium, are calling on the garment companies that have not yet signed the renewed 2018 Accord to do so as soon as possible.

On December 7, two senators from Mexico’s ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) submitted a bill to the Senate that, if approved, would undermine, if not nullify, the most important advances in the country’s Constitutional Reform to the labour justice system that became law only 10 months earlier.

The assassination of two brothers, Victor and Marcelino Shaunitla Peña, has shone a spotlight on Mexico’s corrupt and anti-democratic labour relations system. The brothers were participating in a work stoppage by mineworkers with the support of community members against the Canadian-owned Media Luna gold mine in Azcala, Guerrero. The murders happened just as NAFTA negotiations were resuming in Mexico City.

On October 26, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh announced that it will continue its work to improve worker safety in garment export factories “until a set of rigorous readiness conditions are met by local regulatory bodies.”