Friends Fiduciary Calls For Company Action In Wake Of Bangladesh’s Deadly Tampaco Factory Fire

On September 10, 2016, 34 people were killed and over 50 people injured in a boiler explosion at the Tampaco Foils Ltd factory in Bangladesh. Tampaco produces packaging for food and tobacco products, including British American Tobacco and Nestle. This tragedy followed the 2013 Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh, which killed 1,138 people and injured over 2,500. Tragic accidents have become more frequent in past years as low-cost industrial manufacturing has quickly grown in scale.

In the wake of Rana Plaza, the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) led an investor movement to urge companies to improve working conditions in Bangladesh’s garment sector by joining the Accord for Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Bangladesh Accord). As a result of that effort “inspections have been done in over 1600 Bangladeshi factories focused on identifying and remediating electrical, fire and structural issues.” Investors, including Friends Fiduciary, are now urging the Accord to add boiler safety to the list of protocols and asking companies to provide worker and management training on fire and safety, establish worker and management committees on health and safety, and compensate injured workers as well as the families of those killed. Fire and electrical inspections are crucial in preventing further loss of life, and we urge companies, the Bangladeshi government, and other civil society groups to ensure that fire and safety inspections are frequent and thorough.

The UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights states that companies have a “responsibility to protect human rights.” Friends Fiduciary believes that ensuring the human rights of all people involved in company supply chains is imperative in creating a just, sustainable, and productive economy.

Click here to view the letter.