Since then, the International Labour Organization, foreign governments, and buyers have made a huge effort to make Bangladesh’s garment factories safer. But to make the Bangladesh government’s, factory owners’, foreign retailers’, and donors’ commitment to worker safety and well-being truly effective, they need to go much further: they need to ensure respect for workers’ rights and end the unlawful targeting of labor leaders by factory owners and supervisors. “Whoever Raises their Head Suffers the Most” and accompanying video, released in April 2015, document ongoing violations of workers’ rights in Bangladesh. The violations include physical and verbal abuse of workers, sometimes of a sexual nature; forced overtime; denial of paid maternity leave; and failure to pay wages and bonuses on time or in full. Despite recent labor law reforms, moreover, many workers who try to form unions to address such abuses face threats, intimidation, dismissal, and sometimes physical assault at the hands of managers or thugs. The report concludes with an analysis of continuing shortcomings in efforts to compensate victims of the Rana Plaza collapse and Tazreen Fashions fire.
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