TEXTILE WORKERS IN BANGLADESH

Early day motion 603, tabled 22 October 2013 by Baroness Clark of Kilwinning (Labour). Signed by 37 members.

That this House notes that Bangladesh is currently the world's second-biggest producer of textiles and garments, and that it's mostly-female workforce of four million people are the lowest paid in the world and face appalling working conditions on a daily basis for less than £28 a month; deeply regrets the tragic disasters at garment factories across Bangladesh in recent months, which have claimed well over 1200 lives, left tens of thousands too injured to work and pushed millions more into poverty; commends Global Citizen's See Through Fashion campaign, which is working with the British fashion industry to encourage retailers to sign up to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which will ensure better safety and working conditions for the people who make a majority of Britain's clothes; further commends industry leaders like Primark, Arcadia, River Island and Matalan for signing up to the Accord to ensure that their supply chains are transparent and do not expose their consumers to the moral toxicity of wearing clothes manufactured admidst such fatally-flawed business practices; condemns the deplorable delay of the remaining British retailers like Edinburgh Woollen Mill who also own Peacocks and Sports Direct, who continue to refuse to sign the Accord and who find themselves in an ever-shrinking minority of British retailers on the wrong side of both the financial and moral arguments; and urges them to sign up to the Accord at the earliest opportunity.

Signatures by party: Labour 23, Liberal Democrat 4, DUP 2, Independent 2, Plaid Cymru 2, Social Democratic and Labour Party 2, Conservative 1, Scottish National Party 1.