• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • WCW HOME
  • Submit a Wire!
  • Advertising
  • Media Partners
  • About
  • Contact Us

WorkCompWire

Your Trusted Source for Workers Compensation News

Enlyte
  • Workers Compensation News
    • Workers Compensation Industry News
    • Association, Rating & Research News
    • Claims, Legal, & Compliance News
    • Legislative & Regulatory News
    • Risk Management News
    • Work Force & Human Resource News
  • Featured Articles
  • Leaders Speak
  • Editor’s Forum
  • People On The Move

Marsh: Lessons Learned from Bangladesh Factory Collapse

June 27, 2013 - WorkCompWire

New York, NY – The recent Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh that killed more than 1,100 people highlights the serious risks that labor conditions can pose not only to workers, but also to organizations’ reputations, supply chains, and bottom lines. In its latest Marsh Risk Management Research report, Bangladesh Factory Collapse: Lessons in Risk for the Retail Industry, Marsh provides an overview of the wide range of risks retailers face and risk mitigation advice when sourcing textile goods from Bangladesh and other low-cost markets.

“Even though major retailers and suppliers have sourced from Bangladesh for decades and have worked to improve labor conditions in the past, the Rana Plaza incident clearly reinforces to organizations that labor-related globalization risks require robust oversight efforts, greater visibility, increased vigilance, and continuous improvement,” said Tracy Knippenburg Gillis, Global Reputational Risk and Crisis Management Practice Leader for Marsh Risk Consulting. “Retailers and suppliers should use this tragedy as a catalyst to more fully identify and understand their operational and supply chain risk exposures, reform and strengthen workforce safety practices, and improve supply chain and reputational risk resiliency.”

Bangladesh’s textile industry plays a key role in the retail industry’s supply chains due to its low-cost production capability. But while the country may be home to the world’s lowest minimum hourly wages, according to Maplecroft’s “Working Conditions Index” it also ranks as the eighth-worst country for industrial working conditions — resulting in significant reputational, compliance, and supply chain risks for retailers. Many of the world’s largest suppliers and retailers have experienced widespread negative attention regarding their sourcing of textile goods following the Rana Plaza incident, Marsh noted in its report.

In addition to carefully considering their approach to reputational risk, crisis management, and supply chain resiliency, Marsh recommends that retailers focus on improving compliance efforts and transparency by further standardizing factory audit processes for and contract language with suppliers. This could include: more frequent and unannounced inspections, greater worker engagement in factory audits, and stricter penalty clauses for failure to meet workplace safety requirements.

Source: Marsh

Filed Under: Association, Rating & Research News, Industry News, Risk Management News, Top Stories, Workers' Compensation

Primary Sidebar

Get Our Free Newsletter:


By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: . You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact

myMatrixx

Paradigm

One Call

Workers Compensation News Topics

  • Top Stories
  • Featured Articles
  • Leaders Speak
  • Editor’s Forum
  • The RxProfessor
  • Industry News
  • Association, Rating & Research News
  • People On The Move
  • Claims, Legal, & Compliance News
  • Legislative & Regulatory News
  • Risk Management News
  • Work Force & Human Resource News
  • Workers’ Compensation

Wire Archives

Copyright WorkCompWire © 2023