Tag Archives: Accord and Alliance

Bangladesh is moving towards a safer and compliant manufacturing industry, especially in the apparel and leather industries.

International Labour Organization (ILO) outgoing Bangladesh Country Director Srinivas B Reddy has said the organization will focus on social dialogue to promote freedom of association, collective bargaining, workplace safety, skills development for market needs and labor migration in Bangladesh for the next five years.

Some 513 or one-third of the readymade garment (RMG) factories inspected under the national initiative (NI) have faced closure as they might have failed to compete in the market and comply with the required standards, including safety compliance, officials said.

As Bangladesh looks down the barrel of two humanitarian disasters beyond its control, its government and garment industry risks manufacturing a third. In August, once-in-a-century floods left one third of the country underwater, killing at least 145 people, displacing 300,000, and decimating swathes of Bangladesh’s agricultural heartland. As the water settles and recedes, aid workers say they desperately lackthe supplies needed to stave off disease.

In reaction to recent statements concerning the future of the Bangladesh Accord, the Witness Signatories to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh—Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labor Rights Forum, Maquila Solidarity Network, and the Worker Rights Consortium—wish to respond regarding the continuation of the Accord's inspection programme. Recent statements have led some to erroneously believe that the Accord is scheduled to end in 2018, and one should ask whether such an early departure is even desirable given the limited progress made in the development of a credible and functioning national safety regulatory body.

Shirin has been with us for 12 years, Mahmuda for nine, Rakib for six. The number of workers who have worked for us in one particular factory for over 10 years is massive. Most live in Khilkhet, where we have one of our factories. We are currently scheduled to shift to a new one in Bangla

The Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety and The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, the two western buyers' platforms working to improve workplace safety in Bangladesh readymade garment sector, are to end their tenure at the end of next May, if remediation is properly completed.