Amazon, Ikea, Tom Tailor Not Meeting Human Rights Factory Standards, Complaint Says
Two non-governmental organizations and a trade group filed the first complaint under Germany’s new supply chain law this week, saying Amazon, Ikea and Tom Tailor aren’t meeting certain human rights due diligence requirements. The complaint, filed by the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, FEMNET and the National Garment Workers Federation, said Bangladeshi garment factories for the three companies “have not been adequately monitored, endangering workplace safety for employees.”
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
The complaint is based on “fact-finding research” conducted by the Bangladeshi NGWF in March, which “discovered safety deficiencies” in the factories. Despite being “informed repeatedly by civil society organizations and unions about the risks to health and safety in factories in Bangladesh and other manufacturing countries,” the three companies haven’t signed the Bangladesh Accord, the complaint says, a legally binding agreement between global brands and trade unions designed to improve conditions in the Bangladeshi garment industry.
The German Supply Chain Act, which took effect in January, requires certain corporations with a presence in Germany to comply with various supply chain due diligence obligations or face potential fines. "We are convinced that the failure to sign is a violation of corporate due diligence," said Miriam Saage-Maas, legal director of ECCHR. "It is now up to the competent German authority, the Federal Office of Economics and Export Control, to consider the complaint. We very much hope that the authority will ensure that German companies' business practices will not contribute to deadly disasters … in the future."
Ikea, Amazon and Tom Tailor didn’t respond to a request for comment.