Radio 4, 24 January, 9.30pm

The media frequently offers exposés of workers in unsafe factories in low-cost locations. But it is rare to hear a follow-up giving those implicated the chance to show if they had made a difference.

This episode of Radio 4’s In Business attempted to do just that, following a 2008 programme that highlighted problems at Bangladeshi clothing manufacturer Windy Group. The allegations raised in that programme had motivated Spanish retailer Inditex to investigate, although Windy was not making clothes for the company.

Presenter Peter Day travelled to Bangladesh with Javier Chercoles, director of corporate social responsibility at Inditex, and Neil Kearney, general secretary of the International Textile, Garment & Leather Workers’ Federation.

According to Kearney, 10,000 companies are purchasing clothes from Bangladesh, but only 100 of these are trying to make a difference to labour conditions. Why? Because most don’t come under enough pressure from consumers or the government, he said.

Day was particularly interested in the power of buyers. Are they in the strongest position – stronger than governments, consumers and international unions – to make changes? The answer was an unequivocal yes. Kearney added making change happen was about “life after codes of conduct” and giving responsibility back to the factories.

Windy Group staff now work at a new factory on the outskirts of Dhaka. But improvements do not happen on the cheap. Did it cost much, asked Day. “Yes,” was Chercoles’ short reply. This was a mature examination that took a calm approach to a thorny issue.

Paul Snell

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