Retailers plan Bangladesh factory inspections under safety pact
Tax concessions and low wages have helped turn Bangladesh garment exports into US$19 billion (HK$147.3 billion) a year industry
A group of mainly European retailers has finalised a plan to conduct coordinated inspections of factories in Bangladesh in an attempt to prevent a repeat of the Rana Plaza disaster that killed 1,129 people in April.
The collapse of Rana Plaza, a factory built on swampy ground outside Dhaka, on April 24 ranks among the world’s worst industrial accidents and has galvanised brands to look more closely at their suppliers.
The new accord was launched by trade unions in May and signed by 70 brands, including the world’s two biggest fashion retailers, Inditex and H&M, which have agreed to accept legal responsibility for safety at their Bangladesh factories.
But a number of US chains, including Wal-Mart, Gap , Macy’s, Sears and JC Penney, have shunned the deal, saying that it gives labour unions too much control over ensuring workplace safety and have proposed a non-binding initiative.
The largely European plan, coordinated by Switzerland-based unions IndustriALL and UNI Global, involves the creation of a team of inspectors to evaluate fire, electrical, structural and worker safety in factories supplying signatory brands.
In a report published on Monday, the implementation team said that all 70 signatory brands had to provide full details of the Bangladesh factories from which they source goods - the first time such data would be collected or shared in such a comprehensive way.
