It has been more than two years since almost 1,200 garment workers were killed in a single morning in the factory collapse at Rana Plaza. The tragedy was a wake-up call to the global fashion industry. It has become a symbol of a larger uncomfortable truth about the global apparel supply chain: low-wage garment work can come at almost unimaginable costs.
REGISTERED WITH:
PRINCIPAL PRODUCT:
ANNUAL PRODUCTION CAPACITY:
Total employees:
male
female
Total factories:
other
Alliance/Accord
Other refers to registration with the government and/or a trade association.
Average number of workers:
Obstacles to increased production:
Utilization Declaration Frequency:
Production for the domestic market:
Registered with The Alliance or The Accord
Registered with the government or the trade associations
11,824 workers
200 or fewer workers
Percentage of Factories Registered with Alliance/Accord
Over the last 30 years, the garment sector has boomed in Bangladesh, while rates of extreme poverty have fallen. Continued growth of the industry has the potential to generate shared prosperity for the long term, if minimum standards for labor rights are enforced in all factories.
There are more than 7,000 factories producing for the export market in Bangladesh, divided between direct and indirect sourcing factories. Previous estimates of the size of the sector accounted for 4,000 — 4,500 factories. Our research shows that the universe of factories producing for export is much larger than previously understood, and that indirect sourcing factories are a significant driver of production and employment.
Estimated number of factories
7,000
Total factories
3,200
Direct exporting factories
3,800
Indirect sourcing factories
Direct exporting factories are more likely to employ standard, professional business practices and be aware of international labor standards. Indirect sourcing factories operate on tighter margins, with little oversight or capacity to invest in safety and workers’ rights.
In an indirect sourcing model, direct exporting factories receive orders from foreign brands, then distribute production to a network of indirect suppliers.
Prior to 2014, there was very little reliable data available about the garment sector in Bangladesh. With increasing demands for transparency in the aftermath of Rana Plaza, five datasets came online in 2014 from a mix of public and private sources. In total, we identified 7,179 registered factories in Bangladesh.
Informal factories are a subset of indirect suppliers. They do not register with the government, either of the two national trade associations of manufacturers, or foreign brands. Workers in this part of the sector are especially vulnerable because they are invisible to regulators and their employers operate on such slim margins that they cannot invest in even basic safety equipment or procedures. In June 2015, the NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights conducted a field survey in two sub-districts of Dhaka, in which identified 479 factories in three days.
informal subcontracting accounted for
32%
of the 479 factories surveyed, tongi and rampura, June 2015
among informal subcontractors identified in this survey,
91%
produced at lease partly for export
the average size of an informal subcontracting factory was
55
workers
top obstacles to increased production capacity as reported by factory managers
The Accord includes global and local unions and more than 200 brands, while the Alliance encompasses 27 North American brands. Both initiatives conduct fire and building inspections and offer worker and management safety trainings. These two factory safety programs encompass only 27% of factories, which tend to be larger and better resourced than all other factories. Because they are in the largest factories, the two initiatives encompass 45% of workers, though more than three million workers remain outside their purview.
Number of factories by size
1,900
factories included in the Accord and Alliance
650
average number of workers, all official factories
1,200
average number of workers, accord and alliance factories
More than US$280 million in commitments have been announced for the garment sector in Bangladesh since Rana Plaza. While it is significant that large commitments have been made, it is not yet clear how many of these resources are being spent or if any of this money is being applied to fix factories. It is clear that resources are not being directed towards thousands of indirect suppliers that remain in the shadows.
$100 million
committed over five years for factory safety by foreign brands
80,000
violations identified by Accord inspections as of October 2014
3,425
total inspections by the accord, alliance and the government (dife)
8
number of factories that have passed final inspection
This map is based on the report, "Beyond the Tip of the Iceberg: Bangladesh's forgotten apparel workers," by Sarah Labowitz and Dorothée Baumann-Pauly (NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, December 2015). NYU graduate students Sarah Manning (Stern '16) and Nayantara Banerjee (Gallatin '15) helped collect and analyze the underlying data. Anneka Goss (NYU Tandon '17), a master's student in the Integrated Digital Media program, is the map's designer and architect.