Labour rights groups are calling on Swedish fashion giant H&M to do more to protect garment workers in Bangladesh, after a review of H&M’s strategic suppliers shows that severe delays in carrying out urgent and vital building repairs continue to leave tens of thousands of workers at risk of death and injury.

The Clean Clothes Campaign, the International Labor Rights Forum, the Maquila Solidarity Network and the Worker Rights Consortium, each a witness signatory to the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, published an update to an initial report into delays in safety repairs at 32 of H&M's most strategic Bangladesh suppliers. The update, based on a review of publicly-available documentation carried out in January 2016, shows that all but one of H&M’s strategic suppliers remain behind schedule in making repairs and that over 50 per cent of them are still lacking adequate fire exits.

However, the report does demonstrate some progress. Although the overall number of outstanding fire, electrical and structural renovations remains high at 37 per cent, the number of items reported as ‘behind schedule’ at these 32 factories has decreased. The authors point out that, while this reflects actual progress in some cases, it is largely the granting of deadline extensions to factories rather than the completion of renovations that explains the improvement.