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A CSR consultant has been called in to advise European retailers that
have sourced goods from a Bangladeshi clothing factory which recently
collapsed at the cost of around 100 lives.
The garment factory fell down in Savar in late April, and the owner and a director of the local company, Spectrum Sweater, that ran it, are in prison awaiting trial for causing death by negligence.
However, pressure groups and trade unions have been quick to claim that western companies using the factory as a supplier must be held accountable for their part in failing adequately to monitor conditions there.
Now the Business Social Compliance Initiative, a Brussels-based ethical supply chain organization established in late 2004, has engaged a Dhaka-based CSR consultant, whose name has not been released, to advise some of its 30 corporate members – in particular three large clothing retailers, Inditex (Spain), Neckermann and Steilmann (both Germany). The trio are among a number of European companies named by the Clean Clothes Campaign as having sourced from the factory.
Lorenz Berzau, project co-ordinator at the BSCI, said the organization and its members still need to establish the facts about the accident, but told EP: ‘We are looking at the official reports and are collecting facts and opinions of stakeholders in different ways. We have engaged a CSR consultant in Bangladesh to provide us with some stakeholder views.’
Berzau added: ‘As far as I am aware, no BSCI members have bought anything from Spectrum Sweater since early 2004.
I believe that before then only Neckermann, Steilmann, and Inditex had used Spectrum.’
BSCI, a business-run code monitoring group whose members monitor their supply chains using SA8000-accredited auditors, will bring together stakeholders from government, civil society and business associations in Bangladesh later this month.
Berzau said the Spectrum collapse would be on the agenda. ‘Once we have all the facts and have discussed the situation with the stakeholders involved we’ll see what has to be done,’ he told EP.
The garment factory fell down in Savar in late April, and the owner and a director of the local company, Spectrum Sweater, that ran it, are in prison awaiting trial for causing death by negligence.
However, pressure groups and trade unions have been quick to claim that western companies using the factory as a supplier must be held accountable for their part in failing adequately to monitor conditions there.
Now the Business Social Compliance Initiative, a Brussels-based ethical supply chain organization established in late 2004, has engaged a Dhaka-based CSR consultant, whose name has not been released, to advise some of its 30 corporate members – in particular three large clothing retailers, Inditex (Spain), Neckermann and Steilmann (both Germany). The trio are among a number of European companies named by the Clean Clothes Campaign as having sourced from the factory.
Lorenz Berzau, project co-ordinator at the BSCI, said the organization and its members still need to establish the facts about the accident, but told EP: ‘We are looking at the official reports and are collecting facts and opinions of stakeholders in different ways. We have engaged a CSR consultant in Bangladesh to provide us with some stakeholder views.’
Berzau added: ‘As far as I am aware, no BSCI members have bought anything from Spectrum Sweater since early 2004.
I believe that before then only Neckermann, Steilmann, and Inditex had used Spectrum.’
BSCI, a business-run code monitoring group whose members monitor their supply chains using SA8000-accredited auditors, will bring together stakeholders from government, civil society and business associations in Bangladesh later this month.
Berzau said the Spectrum collapse would be on the agenda. ‘Once we have all the facts and have discussed the situation with the stakeholders involved we’ll see what has to be done,’ he told EP.
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