Authors: Muhammad Azizul Islam, Professor in sustainability accounting and transparency, University of Aberdeen & Jay Kerr, Campaigner, No Sweat, London.
Thirteen years ago, the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, which housed factories for major global fashion brands, killed over 1,130 workers and exposed the human cost behind cheap fast fashion. The deadliest disaster in the garment industry was meant to force binding accountability and transparency, not just voluntary promises. Yet despite major investments in factory safety since 2013, structural problems and modern slavery persist. With the political upheaval in recent years and now a new government elected, will we finally see systemic change in the garment industry?
For most of the period since the Rana Plaza disaster, Bangladesh was governed by Sheikh Hasina, whose administration was widely criticised by human rights organisations and labour activists for a climate of repression in which trade unionists, labour organisers, and garment workers faced intimidation, arbitrary arrests, and criminal charges for protesting over unpaid wages and basic labour rights. The fall of Hasina’s government in August 2024, following student-led protests, and the establishment of an interim government led by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus brought new hope; notably, it dropped criminal charges against 48,000 garment workers who had been arrested during 2023 wage protests—a significant reversal of the Hasina Administration’s repressive approach to workers’ freedom of expression and organising.
Interim Government’s Labour Reform Commission and Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Bill, 2026
A few weeks ago, the new parliament under the Bangladesh Nationalist Party headed by Tarique Rahman, passed the Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which incorporated 25 key recommendations from the interim government’s Labour Reform Commission. These recommendations were heavily influenced by trade unions’ demands, which targeted structural change. Among the most notable aspects of the new law is a thorough reform of trade union rules that significantly lowers the threshold for union registration at the factory level, as well as reforms to minimum wage review cycles, maternity leave, blacklisting, and labour dispute resolution. While the Bill also seeks to enhance workers’ rights to organise and clarify provisions on layoff and wage calculation, other labour rights, including protections against forced labour and modern slavery, are not yet addressed. Whatever positive reforms emerge will ultimately depend on the new government, which appears to act primarily in line with party interests, given that Bangladesh does not have a strong track record of effectively implementing labour laws.
Unfinished Fight Against Forced Labour and Modern Slavery since the Rana Plaza collapse
In the days and weeks before it collapsed, social audits of Rana Plaza factories had been conducted by the brands, yet they gave Rana Plaza a clean bill of health. In response to the collapse, many countries in the Global North enacted Modern Slavery Acts to tackle forced labour and improve transparency in supply chains operating across the Global South. Yet these measures, which are centred on disclosure and risk management, have made only limited progress in holding retailers and suppliers accountable for their irresponsible behaviour towards victims of slavery and exploitation.
There is a growing body of evidence that social audits are ineffective at tackling systemic issues due to a lack of worker involvement. Independent trade unions are best positioned to identify and tackle exploitation in ways that can yield significant positive results far beyond the impact of social audits. Worker-driven accountability, where independent unions are at the table on all decisions affecting workers, as exemplified by the Dindigul Agreement in India, offers a fundamentally different approach centred on worker agency rather than consultant/management-driven third-party auditors.
Research since the Rana Plaza collapse has documented two interconnected failures: ineffective disclosure and transparency measures from the Global North, and systemic unfair practices by brands/retailers. Studies have highlighted precarious conditions and women workers’ vulnerabilities in economic, job, food and housing security within Bangladeshi garment and documented how global fashion brands’ unfair practices—including sudden order cancellation, price reduction, refusal to pay for goods in production, and delayed invoice payment—drive exploitation and forced labour.
Failure of systemic change brings huge risks to apparel supply chain
If systemic change—especially a higher minimum wage amid rising living costs and action on forced labour—is not achieved, the new government is likely to face major worker protests in the garment sector and beyond. Its response will be crucial as to whether it prioritises low costs for brands or workers’ dignity.
Important regulatory developments are emerging in the Global North. The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) is in force, whilst in the US, the proposed Fashion Sustainability and Social Accountability Act remains in the legislative process. In the UK, MPs and civil society organisations are calling for a Fashion Watchdog to mandate the elimination of unfair purchasing practices. All of these frameworks address human rights concerns (and a few also cover environmental/climate issues) in global supply chains. Bangladesh must align with these developments to protect workers and maintain trading relationships.
Yet the Bangladesh government’s current labour reform [Bangladesh Labour (Amendment) Bill, 2026] is not substantive enough to address long standing problems in the garment industry identified by research and NGOs. The amendments lack punitive measures or binding compliance mechanisms and treat modern slavery only lightly, with no concrete control strategies. The amendment does not have any mention of unfair purchasing practices by buyers (brands and retailers) and solid pathways to eliminate modern slavery and forced labour from Bangladeshi garment factories.
We are dealing with long-standing violations of workers’ rights and persistent oppression, and successive governments in Bangladesh have failed to take labour rights and workers’ living conditions seriously. As a result, the path ahead is fraught with difficulty. We argue that if both the Bangladesh government and the governments of brand countries fail to establish an effective watchdog to curb brands and retailers’ unfair practices, these practices will persist. We therefore support the creation of a Fashion Watchdog, mandated to eliminate unfair purchasing practices by brands.
Voluntary social audits, widely used by brands and retailers, are not fit for purpose. Research shows that without external pressure, particularly from labour rights organisations and independent trade unions, audits remain opaque and fail to detect exploitation. Independent trade unions leading accountability through binding agreements, rather than audits, are essential to tackle modern slavery. This is essential not only to uphold workers’ rights and freedom of association but also to advance decent work, combat forced labour, and secure living wages.
Simultaneously, regulators in brand countries must develop specific guidelines on unfair purchasing practices. Without effective cross-border collaboration between regulators in supplier and buyer countries, the unfair purchasing practices and systemic conditions enabling modern slavery will not be meaningfully eliminated.
‘The original article was published by Just Style’
