Ninety Cents Buys Safety on $22 Jeans in Bangladesh

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-05/ninety-cents-buys-safety-on-22-jeans-in-bangladesh.html


A worker attends a circular knitting machine at the Viyellatex Group garment factory in Gazipur, Bangladesh. Photograph: Jeff Holt/Bloomberg

In Bangladesh, the difference between a safe factory and an unsafe one comes down to a few cents.

For just pennies per t-shirt or pair of trousers produced, garment manufacturers could build factories where workers get a decent wage, maternity leave, and overtime, where chemicals and fumes are properly vented, and where hallways and fire exits are well lit and wide enough for everyone inside to flee any danger.

Tipu Munshi can explain how. The member of parliament and millionaire owner of Sepal Group, one of the country’s biggest garment manufacturers, charges $1.16 to sew a pair of jeans for Asda, the U.K. subsidiary of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT)

He could make clothing for less and often does, but right now, for a pair of 14-pound ($22) George jeans, he’s charging a Hong Kong-based middleman, Li & Fung Ltd. (494), 90 cents plus 26 cents of profit. Anything less, he cautions, and he would have to start cutting corners and compromise worker safety.