Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a consortium of European retailers and apparel brands, is likely to start inspecting the garment factories in Bangladesh in early November with a plan to complete the process within a year. A visiting delegation of the platform on Monday shared their initial action plan with Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association.
The delegation of EU Accord, a joint action plan of 87 EU retailers that stipulates inspection of their1800 factory suppliers in Bangladesh to ensure they comply with safety standards, gave the assurance to RMG sector leaders at a meeting at the BGMEA Building in the capital.
The delegation agreed to work under a unified code of conduct while they would submit their assessment parameter to the government and International Labour Organisation for setting a common standard, BGMEA vice-president Shahidullah Azim told reporters.
‘We have discussed a time-bound action plan and the Accord members said that they wanted to start their work in Bangladesh on November 1. They will appoint a chief inspector and a permanent executive director by this time,’ he said.
Azim said that initially the Accord had prepared a list of 1,500 garment factories for inspection, but they have updated their list and now the number of factories that supply products to the Accord member-retailers and brands has increased to 1800.
Now the accord would inspect 1,800 factories and they will provide their complete list to the government by September 28, he added.
Accord delegates said in the meeting that they would provide two funds — one will be used for inspection and training and another as loan for renovation and relocation — but the exact amount was not mentioned, the BGMEA vice-president said.
Azim also said that the meeting of the advisory committee of the Accord will be held in Dhaka on October 22, just before the inspection starts.
The interim executive director of Accord Sean Ansett, representative of C&A Philip Chamberlin, representative of Impact Rosey Hurst, BGMEA vice-president (finance) Reaz-Bin-Mahmood and former BGMEA president Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin attended the meeting.
The EU retailers formed the Accord after the collapse of Rana Plaza that had killed more than 1,100 workers at Savar but the North American retailers refused to join hands with the EU buyers and instead formed an alliance of 20 retailers with separate plan of action for ensuring safety in the garment industry.
The Accord had held its first meeting with the apparel sector leaders and government officials in Bangladesh on July 30-31 and agreed to work with US buyers under a unified code of conduct.
The representatives of the North American Alliance also held a meeting with the government and the BGMEA on September 15-16 and assured that they would inspect 500 garment factories in Bangladesh in a transparent way to ensure sustainable change in the garment sector.
The Alliance promised $100 million in low-cost capital funding to improve fire and structural safety in Bangladeshi factories.
-With New Age input
