Accord on Building Safety, the platform of European retailers, has completed its initial inspection in 1,106 garment factories in Bangladesh until the end of September and identified more than 80,000 faults in the units. The Accord in a press release on Tuesday said that they found faults in all factories and out of them, over 400 corrective action plans have been finalised by the factories and company owners.
‘We have found safety hazards in all factories which were inspected. The safety findings have ranged from minor to significant. The Accord team is now working intensively with factory owners, brands, and labour colleagues to ensure the safety findings are corrected,’ said Brad Loewen, the Accord’s Chief Safety Inspector.
The Accord release said that during the inspection the structural integrity in 17 buildings was found below an acceptable level of safety and the platform recommended the government to set review panel for temporary evacuation of the buildings.
Around 110 inspections found that immediate actions were required to bring the factories above accepted safety levels for occupancy and production to continue, the release said.
Alan Roberts, executive director, international operations, welcomed the continued commitment from global brands and retailers and local and global unions to support the remediation efforts in the RMG supply chains in Bangladesh.
‘The next phase of the Accord will focus on the implementation and monitoring of the corrective action plans and rolling out the training and worker participation programme – including establishing credible labour-management, occupational safety and health committees at the factory level,’ he said.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Md Atiqul Islam admitted the findings of the Accord’s inspection and said it was a great opportunity for the country that the brands were helping the sector to become compliant.
‘It is true that there are a lot of problems in our factories and so we welcomed Accord and Alliance for Bangladesh Workers Safety. The retailers groups are doing a great job that they are digging out the real safety factors of the sector,’ he said.
After completing the inspection and remediation under the surveillance of international brands, Bangladesh’s garment factories will gain the world standard certification, Atique said.
After the Rana Plaza factory collapse on April 24, 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, Western retailers and
apparel brands, reacting to public outrage, began a major push to improve safety at the Bangladeshi factories they do business with.
The EU brands and retailers including H&M, Carrefour and Mango, as well as 14 American companies formed Accord while the North American buyers including Walmart, Gap, Target and Kohl’s formed the Alliance.
The Accord in February this year started inspection in more than 1,500 garment factories that supply to the Accord’s members.
Meanwhile, the Alliance has already completed its initial inspection in 587 factories and started second phase work for remediation.
-With New Age input
