In 2013, the Rana Plaza disaster highlighted the highly exploitative conditions of the global garment supply chain centred on Bangladesh. Global lead firms and other stakeholders responded by reforming the labour governance system comprising public and private regulations. How can the effects of this new multi-level governance system on worker outcomes (wages, working conditions and workers’ rights) be conceptualized and explained? Using an inter-disciplinary framework integrating an industrial relations/sociology perspective and a global production network approach, we show how workplace relations (structural and relational workplace characteristics) mediate the relationship between the labour governance system and worker outcomes. A mixed methods research design that includes a factory management survey and case studies enables us to identify and analyse two predominant types of workplace labour regimes associated with different patterns of worker outcomes (procedural and substantive employment conditions). Referred to as the hardship and sweatshop regimes, respectively, these differ in the extent to which workers are exploited. With the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, we discuss the possibility that modern slavery, the worst form of worker exploitation, is emerging. The paper concludes by briefly considering several research and practical implications of our analysis.
Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord) (2018) http://bangladeshaccord.org/
2.
AhmedFZGreenleafASacksA (2014) The paradox of export growth in areas of weak governance: The case of the ready made garment sector in Bangladesh. World Development56: 258–271.
3.
AlamgirFBanerjee (2019) Contested compliance regimes in global production networks: Insights from the Bangladesh garment industry. Human Relations72(2): 272–297.
4.
AmengualMChirotL (2016) Reinforcing the state: Transnational and state labour regulation in Indonesia. Industrial and Labor Relations Review69(5): 1056–1080.
5.
AmengualMDistelhorstGTobinD (2020) Global purchasing as labor regulation: The missing middle. Industrial and Labor Relations Review73(4): 817–840.
6.
AnnerM (2012) Corporate social responsibility and freedom of association rights: The precarious quest for legitimacy and control in global supply chains. Politics and Society40(4): 609–644.
7.
AnnerM (2015) Labor control regimes and worker resistance in global supply chains. Labor History56(3): 292–307.
8.
AnnerM (2018) Binding Power: The Sourcing Squeeze, Workers’ Rights, and Building Safety in Bangladesh since Rana Plaza, Penn State University, CGWR Research Report.
9.
AnnerM (2020) “Abandoned? The impact of Covid-19 on workers and businesses at the bottom of global garment supply chains”, Penn State Center for Global Workers’ Rights (CGWR) Research Report, March 27.
10.
AnnerMBairJ (2016) The Bulk of the Iceberg: A Critique of the Stern Center's Report on Worker Safety in Bangladesh. Pennsylvania: Penn State Center for Global Workers’ Rights Research Brief.
11.
Asian Development Bank (ADB) (2006) Core Labour Standards Handbook. Philippines: Manila.
12.
BairJAnnerMBlasiJ (2020) The political economy of private and public regulation in post-rana plaza Bangladesh. Industrial and Labor Relations Review73(4): 969–994.
13.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) 2018. http://www.bgmea.com.bd/home/pages/tradeinformation.
14.
BarrettPMBaumann-PaulyDGuA (2018) Five Years After Rana Plaza: The Way Forward. New York: NYU Stern Center for Business and Human Rights.
15.
BartleyTChildC (2014) Shaming the corporation: The social production of targets and the anti-sweatshop movement. American Sociological Review79(4): 653–679.
16.
BurawoyM (1985) The Politics of Production: Factory Regimes Under Capitalism and Socialism. London: Verso Books.
17.
CaruanaRCraneAGoldS, et al. (2021) Modern slavery in business: The Sad and sorry state of a Non-field. Business and Society60(2): 251–287.
18.
ChowdhuryMS (2017) Compliance with core international labour standards in national jurisdiction: Evidence from Bangladesh. Labor Law Journal68(1): 78.
19.
Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) (2021) BREAKING POINT, https://cleanclothes.org/file-repository/breakingpoint_report__layout-3.pdf/view
20.
CraneA (2013) Modern slavery as a management practice: Exploring the conditions and capabilities for human exploitation. Academy of Management Review38(1): 49–69.
21.
DonagheyJReineckeJ (2018) When industrial democracy meets corporate social responsibility—A comparison of the Bangladesh accord and alliance as responses to the rana plaza disaster. British Journal of Industrial Relations56(1): 14–42.
22.
EdwardsPK (1986) Conflict at Work: A Materialist Analysis of Workplace Relations. Oxford: Blackwell.
23.
Egels-ZandénN (2014) Revisiting supplier compliance with MNC codes of conduct: Recoupling policy and practice at Chinese toy suppliers. Journal of Business Ethics119(1): 59–75.
24.
FrenkelSJSchuesslerES (2021) From rana plaza to covid-19: Deficiencies and opportunities for a New labour governance system in garment global supply chains. International Labour Review60(4 ). doi: 10.1111/ilr.12208
25.
GoldSTrautrimsATroddZ (2015) Modern slavery challenges to supply chain management. Supply Chain Management: An International Journal20: 485–494.
26.
ILO (2017) Global Estimates of Modern Slavery: Forced Labour and Forced Marriage. Geneva: ILO. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/documents/publication/wcms_575479.pdf.
27.
International Labour Organization (ILO) (2016) ‘Decent work in global supply chains’, International Labour Conference, Report IV, 105th Session, ILO, Geneva.
28.
JamesPMilesLCroucherR, et al. (2018) Regulating factory safety in the Bangladeshi garment industry. Regulation and Governance13(3): 431–444.
29.
KabeerNHuqLSulaimanM (2020) Paradigm shift or business as usual? Workers’ views on multi-stakeholder initiatives in Bangladesh. Development and Change51(3): 1360–1398.
30.
KumarA (2020) Monopsony Capitalism: Power and Production in the Twilight of the Sweatshop Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
31.
LabowitzSBaumann-PaulyD (2014) Business as usual is not an option. New York University Center for Business and Human Rights.
32.
LakhaniTKuruvillaSAvgarA (2013) From the firm to the network: Global value chains and employment relations theory. British Journal of Industrial Relations51(3): 440–472.
33.
Living Wage Benchmark Report (2015–2016) https://www.isealalliance.org/sites/default/files/resource/2017-12/Dhaka_Living_Wage_Benchmark_Infographic.pdf.
34.
LockeRM (2013) The Promise and Limits of Private Power: Promoting Labor Standards in A Global Economy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
35.
MoazzamKG (2018) Ongoing upgradation in RMG enterprises: preliminary results from a survey. Presentation, Centre for Policy Dialogue, Dhaka, 3 March, 2018.
36.
NolanJBoersmaM (2019) Addressing Modern Slavery. Sydney: UNSW press.
37.
OECD (2018) OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector. Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
38.
RahmanMBariE (2016) The Political Economy of Change, Escaping the Middle-Income Trap: Perspectives From Bangladesh. Bangladesh: Centre for Policy Dialogue/Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. www.fes-asia.org.
39.
RahmanS (2014) Broken Promises of Globalization: The Case of the Bangladesh Garment Industry. Maryland: Lexington Books.
40.
ReineckeJDonagheyJ (2021) Transnational representation in global labour governance and the politics of input legitimacy. Business Ethics Quarterly. DOI:10.1017/beq.2021.27.
41.
SalemSRozentalF (2012) Labor standards and trade: Review of recent empirical evidence. Journal of International Commerce and Economics4(2): 63–98.
42.
ScheperC (2017) Labour networks under supply chain capitalism: The politics of the Bangladesh accord. Development and Change48(5): 1069–1088.
43.
SchuesslerEFrenkelSJWrightCF (2018) Governance of labor standards in Australian and German garment supply chains: The impact of rana plaza. Industrial and Labor Relations Review72(3): 552–579.
44.
ShortJLToffelMWHugillAR (2020) Improving working conditions in global supply chains: The role of institutional environments and monitoring program design. Industrial and Labor Relations Review73(4): 873–912.
45.
SmithABarbuMCamplingL, et al. (2018) Labor regimes, global production networks, and European Union trade policy: Labor standards and export production in the Moldovan clothing industry. Economic Geography94(5): 550–574.
46.
SoundararajanVSpenceLJReesC (2016) Small business and social irresponsibility in developing countries: Working conditions and “evasion” institutional work. Business and Society57(7): 1301–1336.
47.
Transparency International (2020) Report on perceptions of public sector corruption https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi
48.
United Nations (UN) (2011) Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. New York: United Nations.
49.
WoodA (2021) Workplace regimes: A sociological defence and elaboration. Work in the Global Economy1(1–2): 119–138.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
