LIU TO HOST DISCUSSION ON INVESTOR RESPONSE TO BANGLADESH FACTORY TRAGEDIES
Labor-Rights Experts and Investors Will Caucus on Worldwide Efforts
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City Comptroller John C. Liu will host a briefing for investors and trustees of the NYC Pension Funds on the recent factory tragedies in Bangladesh and institutional investors' ongoing efforts to hold retailers accountable for the risks brought on by their suppliers' handling of workers' rights and safety practices. The discussion will be open to the press.
WHO: Comptroller Liu; Kalpona Akter, Director of the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity; Scott Nova, Executive Director of the Worker Rights Consortium.
WHAT: Comptroller Liu, Ms. Akter, and Mr. Nova will brief investors on ongoing responses to recent factory tragedies in Bangladesh that have killed more than 1,200 garment workers. Ms. Akter will provide a unique, local perspective on working conditions and reform efforts in Bangladesh. Mr. Nova will discuss the recent Accord on Fire & Building Safety in Bangladesh, signed by more than 40 global companies.
WHEN: Monday, June 10 at 12 p.m.
WHERE: 1 Centre Street, New York, N.Y., Fifth Floor Boardroom, Rm. 530.
RSVP: Call 212-669-3747 or emailpress@comptroller.nyc.govif you plan to attend.
BACKGROUND: In 2011, Ms. Akter, a former child laborer from Bangladesh, presented the NYC Funds' proposal asking Wal-Mart to require its suppliers disclose their efforts to meet international standards of human and labor rights. Today, at Wal-Mart's annual meeting, she again addressed the company's board on behalf of shareowners. Comptroller Liu and the NYC Funds are among the global investors, with a combined $1.35 trillion, who signed the recent Joint Investor Statement Regarding Recent Events in Bangladesh.
Joint Investor Statement on Bangladesh: www.amalgamatedbank.com/home/fiFiles/static/documents/Joint_investor_statement_re_Bangladesh_51613.pdf
Accord on Fire & Building Safety in Bangladesh: http://www.workersrights.org/linkeddocs/Accord%20on%20Fire%20and%20Building%20Safety%20in%20Bangladesh%205.12.2013.pdf