Shadow Accounts on Corporate Social Impacts and Exploitation of Workers on the Ground: Evidence from Bangladeshi Factories for Global Fashion Retailers during Covid-19

Research output: Contribution to conferenceConference presentation (Unpublished paper)peer-review

Abstract

This study examines how global fashion retailers’ particular actions, including the cancellation of orders, impacted the livelihood of women workers in Bangladesh amidst Covid-19 disruptions. Our research is motivated by the apparent research gap in understanding (missing) the link between retailers’ CSR standards, CSR disclosures and shadow accounts on retailers’ social performance and impacts on the ground. To underpin the research, this study draws on the labour process theory and a feminist perspective and relies on interviews with workers, mostly women in Bangladesh garment factories that produce garments for global fashion retailers, mostly based in North America and Europe. We also rely on interviews with NGOs, trade unions, and development agencies who are working to uphold workers’ rights in the garment sector. This study shows workers' and NGOs’ accounts of how retailers’ irresponsible actions during the Covid time exacerbated economic insecurities and job losses, exploitation and abuses, and negligence of basic human rights, employment rights and rights to organise, especially among women workers. Such shadow accounts by less powerful stakeholders, including workers, on retailers’ social impacts expose the exploitation of women and inequality in the global supply chains. This study also shows that apart from their publicly stated CSR standards and moral guidance, retailers neither documented nor disclosed their own social performance in relation to human rights and working conditions on their factory floors. We argue that in doing so, retailers either conceal the truth about working conditions or silence workers’ voices.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusAccepted/In press - 20 May 2024
EventBritish Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA) Scotland Conference - Dundee, United Kingdom
Duration: 17 Jun 202417 Jun 2024
https://bafa.ac.uk/subgroups/regional/scottish/events/events-past/annual-conference-2024.html

Conference

ConferenceBritish Accounting and Finance Association (BAFA) Scotland Conference
Country/TerritoryUnited Kingdom
CityDundee
Period17/06/2417/06/24
Internet address

Bibliographical note

Acknowledgement: This article is part of a project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK. Early findings from the project were presented at various events, including (but not limited to) a joint Cross Party Group (CPG) event (CPG on Bangladesh and CPG on Fair Trade) on “Trade with Bangladesh” on November 15, 2023; a workshop on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Rana Plaza on April 24, 2023 jointly organized by the University of Aberdeen Business School and Centre for Global Development; an online Seminar (Webinar) on Safeguarding Worker’s Rights, on March, 23, 2023, organised by GIZ Fabric, a part of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ); a 'round table' dialogue with EU young people and Global South on February 21, 2023 organised by Fair Trade Advocacy Office (Brussels); the OECD side session on February 22, 2022; a workshop for ILO Better Work staff at the ILO Dhaka office on December 22, 2022; a workshop on the occasion of Anti-Slavery Day on October, 18, 2022 organised by the University of Aberdeen attended by Lord Provost of Aberdeen and community members; a parliamentary drop-in session at Westminster (UK Parliament) on June 15, 2022, organised by Liz Twist MP and Peter Aldous, MP in collaboration with Transform Trade, co-attended by researchers from the University of Aberdeen, Royal Holloway, University of London and University of Nottingham; We thank all panel members and attendees at these events. We also acknowledge comments from the annual John Forster Memorial Lecture on November 1, 2023, organised by Aberdeen for Fairer World, the workshop presentation organised by Asia Research Institute (Nottingham University) on May 4, 2023, on the occasion of 10 year anniversary of Rana Plaza tragedy, the annual Fair Trade Nation Lecture on April 27, 2023 organised by the Scottish Fair Trade Forum, the research seminar presentation at Accounting Department, the University of Indonesia on May 20 May 2022 and the research seminar presentation at Porto Business School on Apr14, 2023. The project was a finalist in the ‘Research with Impact- Institution’ category for Green Gown Award (2023) in association with UKRI (the title for competition: Making Ends Meet - transforming the Readymade garment industry by amplifying the voices of those affected’. The project was Finalist under the category of The Research Project of the Year: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, the Times Higher Education (THE) Award 2023 (Liverpool).

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