工人福利应让采购商买单

Last Thursday, Bangladeshi firefighters launched a surprise inspection of clothing factories across the country. The visit was prompted by the death of more than 110 workers in a fire at Tazreen Fashions, a maker of T-shirts and polo shirts for western retailers, last month.

不久前，孟加拉国政府派出消防人员突击检查全国各地的服装厂。为西方零售商生产T恤和马球衫的服装企业Tazreen Fashions上月发生火灾，导致110多名工人死亡，正是引起此次检查的导火索。

Most of the factories were found to have an inadequate number of extinguishers, fire exits and not enough staff with safety training. Sadly, this means that the Tazreen tragedy is likely to be repeated.

检查发现，大多数工厂的灭火器和消防通道数量不足，而且接受过安全培训的员工也很少。遗憾的是，这意味着Tazreen悲剧可能将重演。

Bangladesh has been one of the biggest beneficiaries of the migration of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs in industries such as toys, garments and shoes from southern China, where wages have risen by double digits. Almost 80 per cent, or $20bn, of Bangladesh’s exports earnings come from its 4,000 factories that make clothing for western retailers.

由于工资涨幅超过两位数，玩具、制衣、制鞋等制造行业的几十万个就业岗位流出了中国南方地区，而孟加拉国是最大的受益国之一。孟加拉国近80%的出口收入（合200亿美元）都来自为西方零售商生产服装的4000家工厂。

Another beneficiary has been Pakistan, where 315 workers died in a factory fire in September. The Financial Express, a newspaper in Dhaka, observed last week that by contrast, the fire safety record in China’s garment factories was “impressive, and it described the disparity as puzzling.

巴基斯坦是另一个受益国，9月份该国一家工厂曾发生过一场死亡315人的火灾。达卡的《金融快报》(Financial Express)上周报道称，中国服装厂的防火安全记录“令人欣慰，并称两国在安全方面的差距令人费解。

In fact, it is not really surprising. China’s factories have had a couple of decades of being subjected to more scrutiny than others in emerging markets. This is because there were – and continue to be – plenty of violations to police: on Tuesday, a disgruntled worker set fire to a clothing factory in southern China causing the deaths of 14 colleagues.

其实，产生这种差距并不意外。数十年来，中国工厂受到的检查一直多于其他新兴市场国家的工厂。这是因为，社会治安案件无论在过去还是现在都层出不穷——上周二，一名心怀不满的员工纵火焚烧中国南方一家服装厂，导致14名工友死亡。

But three decades after China opened its factories to foreign investment, there is a vast network of inspection teams working for western manufacturers who outsource work checking on everything from workers’ overtime records to product safety.

但在中国工厂对外资开放30年之后，中国已经拥有了一支庞大的检查队伍，他们为西方制造商提供外包服务，检查工人加班记录和产品安全等多种指标。

At a sourcing conference organised by the French chamber of commerce in Hong Kong this year, an executive from Mothercare, the British baby goods retailer, revealed that China would continue to account for the majority of its sourcing because the country’s certification standards were much better developed than elsewhere.

在法国香港商会今年主办的采购大会上，英国婴儿产品零售商Mothercare的一位高管透露，中国仍将是该公司的主要采购目的国，原因正在于中国的认证标准远高于其他国家。

Moreover, since a spate of suicides by young workers in 2010 at factories owned by Foxconn, the Taiwanese company which makes products for technology groups including Apple, Delland Hewlett-Packard, authorities in Guangdong have moved to allow collective bargaining. In many factories, dialogue is now possible between workers and management that is not dominated by the presence of the Communist party’s official union, which had traditionally sided with management and suppressed strikes for the same reason Dhaka’s ominously named “industrial police do – because labour unrest is deemed bad for economic growth.

此外，自从2010年富士康(Foxcoon)工厂连续多次发生年轻工人自杀事件以来，广东当局调整了立场，允许发起集体谈判。富士康是一家台湾企业，为苹果(Apple)、戴尔(Dell)和惠普(HP)等科技公司制造产品。在很多工厂，工人如今有可能绕开共产党领导下的官方工会，直接与管理层展开对话，而在以往，官方工会通常与管理层一起欺压工人，原因是他们认为劳资纠纷不利于经济增长——与孟加拉国首都达卡名字凶恶的“工业警察动机相仿。

The cause of worker welfare is helped by the fact that young Chinese workers are increasingly scarce because of the country’s one-child policy. This year, I watched a young woman riding in a cycle rickshaw speeding through an outdoor jobs fair in the industrial city of Dongguan as enthusiastic recruiters pressed fliers upon her.

中国一胎政策使得年轻劳动力日益紧缺，也对工人福利的改善起到促进作用。今年，我曾在工业城市东莞看见一位年轻女子乘坐人力车疾驰穿过一场户外招聘会，热情的招工人员急忙塞给她传单。

Many problems remain in China but in countries with high levels of unemployment and underemployment such as Bangladesh, where the minimum wage is just $37 a month, policing worker safety from afar is an even greater challenge.

虽然中国仍然存在着诸多问题，但在孟加拉国这样失业率与未充分就业率较高的国家，远程监督工人安全只会更加困难。

The fire at Tazreen is the fault more widely of a global production system dominated by the concerns of fast fashion, just-in-time inventory management and low prices. So while global retailers responded to the murder of a Bangladeshi labour leader in April by asking for a full investigation, activists and suppliers say that too often buyers for western retailers are so focused on low prices that they do not pay enough attention to the safety and welfare of workers.

Tazreen火灾更应归咎为过分关注快速时尚、零库存管理和低价格的全球生产体系。因此，当跨国零售商要求对孟加拉国一位工人领袖今年4月被谋杀一事展开彻查时，活动人士和供应商却表示，西方零售商的采购者往往过于注重低价格，未对工人的安全和福利给予足够的重视。

Van Sou-leng, head of the Cambodian garment manufacturers association, says: “The sad reality is that for the past 20 years, the price of everything has increased with inflation but not garments. Buyers talk about compliance but they don’t pay for it. The buyer and consumer must be willing to pay more.

柬埔寨服装制造商协会主席Van Sou-leng称：“可悲的现实是，过去20年里所有商品的价格都随通胀而升高，只有服装除外。采购者将合规经营挂在嘴上，却不为合规经营买单。采购者和消费者必须愿意付出更高的价格。

To emphasise the point, Mr Van explains that he recently approached western buyers to help subsidise lunch at clothing factories in Cambodia because he was concerned about the nutrition levels of young workers after a few fainted on the job. The response was dispiriting: not a single buyer replied.

为强调这一点，Van Sou-leng称他近期接洽了西方采购者，希望他们为柬埔寨服装厂的午餐提供补助——几名工人在岗位上晕倒引起了他对年轻工人营养状况的担忧。但结果令人失望：他没有得到任何回应。

Michael Skapinker is away