Garib & Garib fire and the development of a safety standards proposal for Bangladesh

A fire at H&M, Teddy and LC Waikiki supplier Garib & Garib Sweater Factory in Dhaka in February 2010 cost the lives of 21 workers. In the wake of the fire, international labour rights organisations developed Health and Safety Action Points for Buyers, released in April, on the 5th anniversary of the Spectrum Factory collapse. The presentation of the Action Points was followed by a proposal to organise a meeting of government, buyers, industry and trade unions. This meeting finally took place in December 2010 but yielded no real results. Shortly afterwards a new fire, in the That’s it Sportswear/Hameem factory, which supplied to Gap, PVH Target and others, killed 29 workers.