Can Mobile Phones Improve Factory Fire Safety?

by Tripti Lahiri, WSJ India, December 30, 2012

In the wake of the fire at a Bangladesh factory  that killed at least 112 garment workers on Nov. 24, U.S. and European retailers who buy from the South Asian country have said they will drastically improve safety checks at the factories they use. … But few of the plans being considered by retailers seem likely to address issues that labor groups have raised with regard to the present safety audit system – that they don’t allow workers a way to alert retailers to issues that crop up when the brands’ representatives are not around. Another complaint is that information on fire safety is generally kept confidential and rarely shared in a comprehensive way with the workers most likely to be at risk. Indian-American entrepreneur Kohl Gill is hopeful that cellphones, which are now widespread in exporting countries like Bangladesh and China, could help.Through his two-year-old company LaborVoices, Mr. Gill has been developing a voice-activated system that workers can call to leave messages about workplace conditions. ….

For full text of this article, please visit Can Mobile Phones Improve Factory Fire Safety? – India Real Time – WSJ.

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• In Bangladesh, the Garment Factories Keep Burning (businessweek.com)
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