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EU official urges retailers to pay more for garments

Star Business Report
Global brands should raise the price they pay to Bangladeshi garment makers so that they can provide a living wage to workers, a European Union politician said yesterday.
"There are many of us who feel that this is important and the EU parliament also feels that this is important,” Jean Lambert, chair of the EU delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia, said at a media briefing at the EU headquarters in Dhaka.
Lambert called in Bangladesh to participate in the inaugural Dhaka Apparel Summit organised by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association to brighten the image of the sector sullied by twin industrial disasters.
She said the prices going to the manufacturers from retailers need to be increased. At the same time, it has to be ensured that the increased prices make their way to the workers. "I think that is the essential thing because the workforce should have a living wage-- a wage that can give you a dignified life.” The British politician, who is also in the EU parliament committee on employment and social affairs, said a lot of pressures have already been put on brands about the need to increase the prices they pay to manufacturers.
She said a lot of consumer groups are also raising questions on Bangladeshi manufacturers' capacity to produce T-shirts at such a low price.
"Two to three euros for a T-shirt! It really becomes impossible to think how the price is being paid. You [manufacturers] pay for the raw materials, workers, processes and transport, and the profit is being made by the companies selling it to consumers."
"What on earth the workers are being paid in this? There is an increasing sense of anger from a lot of people."
She said the brands have to increase the price out of corporate conscience, and urged them to work collectively to bring about the improvement.
The seasoned English politician though went on to acknowledge the progress the sector made since the Rana Plaza collapse.
"Things are improving. The manufacturers have been involved in the inspection and evaluation process. There has been rethinking about how factory owners can be engaged differently with their workers."
Quoting a manufacturer, Lambert said there is a new realisation among factory managers about treating workers differently and providing them with better
wages and working environment.
'They also realise that if they train them they will be able to take advantage in the market and remain competitive. This change of mindset needs to come across the whole industry," she said, while urging the garment makers to invest in human capital.
But still more needs to be done, the EU politician said.
"People are saying that we have the labour laws now, but we still don't have the implementing regulations about how they should actually be put into force." “There are building regulations in Bangladesh, but if you don't put them into force, it does not live and affect people's lives."
She also touched upon the country's aspirations to become a middle-income one in the next decade. To attain that, issues such as environmental sustainability and water quality have to be addressed.
Lambert also said the country needs to diversify its export sector instead of putting all of its resources behind just one sector, in order to help the economy avoid any trouble if any single sector is affected.
She requested Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to actively take part in the next year's climate change conference in Paris, as she did in Copenhagen, by leading a large multi-party delegation and civil society.
"It is really essential that developing countries are really heard in those talks. There was a very powerful voice coming from Bangladesh in the past, and I am hoping that again."
Pierre Mayaudon, head of the EU delegation to Bangladesh, was also present during the briefing.