Bangladesh

The International Labor Organization (ILO) says that 80% of export-oriented garment factories in Bangladesh need fire and electrical safety improvements. This comes despite a recent government report saying that many factories in the country did not need any remediation. ILO country director Srinivas Reddy says that every factory needs to come up with a remediation plan and act on it immediately before they can be declared safe. (Reuters)
 
A new study from the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) says that the real wages of Bangladeshi garment workers have been on the rise in recent years. The group says that real wages increased by over 37% in 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, continuing a trend of growth from 2010. The BIDS study also notes that this increase and the corresponding consumer growth it has spurred has not affected Bangladesh’s global competitiveness as a sourcing destination as some experts had feared. With this in mind, however, BIDS representatives note that there is still much more work to do to improve the lives of those working in the country’s readymade garment sector. (Fibre2Fashion)/(BIDS)