Collective arrangements in the Bangladeshi garment industry

Summary (no more than 500 words) The Bangladeshi economy is heavily reliant on the garment industry. It employs more than four million workers and garment exports account for about 84% of total export (BetterWork, 2020). Bangladesh has received increased media attention after the disastrous Rana Plaza collapse in 2013 (Kabeer, Huq & Sulaiman, 2019). The disaster that caused over 1000 deaths was followed by the investment in a range of collective arrangements as an alternative to private, voluntary Code of Conducts (COCs) to promote improvements in labour standards. These collective arrangements range from industry-led initiatives, agreements between lead firms and other stakeholders, to arrangements between lead firms and unions and take different approaches. However, there is limited reported impact of improvements in labour standards since the emergence of collective arrangements (Kabeer et al., 2020; SchuBler et al., 2019; Anner, 2018). Despite the unique potential of collective arrangements to overcome the collective action problem, critiques argue that the "experiment" of collaborative efforts has failed, given limitations in their approach and nature (Ashwin, 2019; Locke et al., 2009; MSI Integrity, 2020; CorA, 2020). COVID-19 has once again highlighted the urgent need to find ways to improve collective efforts to promote better and more resilient labour standards in the garment industry. Several authors have called for a better understanding of the portfolio of collective arrangements in Bangladesh (MSI Integrity, 2020; Kuruvilla, 2020; SchuBler et al., 2019). This research aims to add to this understanding and provide relevant recommendations to stakeholders by discovering how approaches of collective arrangements can be improved and how collaboration between collective arrangements can be fostered to more effectively improve labour standards of garment workers in Bangladesh. The research will consist of a mixed method approach, including semi-structured interviews with representatives from four relevant stakeholder groups and a case-study of a "best-case" factory, that will add depth to the analysis.