Supply Chain

Walmart Partners with LaborVoices To Ensure Factory Safety in Bangladesh

LaborVoices has announced a new partnership with Walmart that will provide visibility into the retail giant's supply chain through real-time, anonymized worker feedback, to help Walmart ensure safe factory working conditions throughout its Bangladeshi supply chain.

By Jennifer Elks | Published 11 years ago | About a 2 minute read

LaborVoices is working with Walmart on implementation details for its 279 supplier factories, including how to responsibly share this visibility with the broader community, in order to encourage rapid improvements among suppliers. LaborVoices notes that Walmart is committed to raising inspections standards and providing transparency regarding safety conditions in these suppliers.

“Transparency is vital to make progress in improving factory conditions, and by disclosing this information, government, workers, non-governmental agencies, and companies can benefit from this work,” said Rajan Kamalanathan, vice president of Ethical Sourcing for Walmart.

Walmart’s market presence will allow LaborVoices to deliver impact at scale, to be a transformative force in a sector that has seen horrific tragedies and senseless deaths. By introducing its innovative approach to Bangladeshi workers, LaborVoices hope to be a significant agent of change, helping brands and consumers to find and choose best-in-class suppliers.

Founded in 2010, LaborVoices supports worker empowerment by helping workers speak out about their workplaces and hear from other workers. This feedback mechanism helps workers find the best opportunities available to them, and warns workers away from dangerous or abusive employers. LaborVoices then aggregates this feedback into actionable information for brands, civil society and other stakeholders.

Laborvoices welcomes collaborations with all civil society organizations, especially Bangladeshi and international trade unions, interested in implementing our network worldwide, to amplify workers' voices and improve labor conditions and safety.

LaborVoices CEO Kohl Gill will take part in a panel discussion on "How the Internet of Things, 3D Printing and Innovative Data Analysis are Transforming Manufacturing and Supply Chains" on Tuesday, June 4, at the SB '13 conference in San Diego.