Two new bodies to take over safety monitoring duties from Accord, Alliance

Published in The Daily Star on April 22, 2018

Two new bodies will act as transitional safety supervisors in the garment sector after the expiry of the tenure of Accord and Alliance.

Accord, the platform of about 200 European retailers, will be transformed into ‘transitional Accord’, and Alliance, an agency of 28 North American retailers, will be ‘Safety Monitoring Organisation’.

The transitional Accord will act for six more months after the expiry of Accord’s tenure next month to take preparation, said Siddiqur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. The Safety Monitoring Organisation will act until the strengthening of the Remediation Coordination Cell (RCC), he said.

Rahman shared the ideas of forming the two bodies at a press conference called on the occasion of the fifth anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse at the association’s office in Dhaka yesterday.

The RCC, an organisation formed with representation from the International Labour Organisation, the BGMEA and the government, will supervise the building inspection and safety progress monitoring.

Both the foreign inspection agencies were formed after the building collapse on April 24 in 2013 that killed 1,138 and injured 2,500. The aim was to fix structural, fire and electrical loopholes in garment factories.

So far, the Accord has completed 88 percent and the Alliance 90 percent of the inspection and remediation of about 2,200 active garment factories, Rahman said.

Moreover, 1,500 small and medium-sized garment factories are being inspected and monitored by the government.

However, of the 1,500 factories, 900 have been shut as they failed to improve the compliance and the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) has given a deadline of April 30 to the remaining 600 factories to complete their remediation.

The 600 factories have completed 70 percent of their remediation works, said the BGMEA chief.

“If they fail to improve the remediation by the deadline the DIFE will close down the units.”

Regarding the expenditure by the BGMEA for giving salaries, arrears, treatment to the injured and rehabilitation of the victims, Rahman said the trade body has spent Tk 15 crore thus far.

“We have taken the responsibilities of the orphans.”

After the incident, the BGMEA canceled the membership of five factories housed in Rana Plaza for their weak compliance, Rahman said.

The association also helped the law enforcement agencies in nabbing the responsible owners of the affected garment factories.

The Rana Plaza Trust Fund, an ILO-brokered initiative, paid Tk 240 crore as compensation to the victims.

“Bangladeshi garment factories are now the safest in the world after the inspection and remediation of workplaces by the Accord, the Alliance and the government,” said Rahman.