Mourners outside a collapsed building in Bangladesh on May 14, 2013.
In Manveer Tatla’s Blog, she discusses the accountability employers have to their employees. In a fire, in a building Wal-Mart had used and reportedly closed for their clothing line, “Faded Glory”, 1,100 workers had been killed. Manveer states that, “Wal-Mart has the social responsibility to ensure that all of its workers, worldwide, work in a safe environment”. I agree with this statement, and I think companies should not take their employees for granted or blindly assume that their actions don’t have consequences.
This is not the first instance of unsafe working conditions. In Bangladesh alone approximately 1,800 employees have been killed in building collapses or fires since 2005. This and other incidences has prompted many large clothing corporations, including Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, to sign an agreement in which they will refuse to do business with factories that will not make improvements to factory conditions as well as offer up to $500,000 for repairs and inspections into retailers’ factories.
Hopefully these incidents will motivate other retailers into action to provide safe conditions for employees all around the world.
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