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Retailers sign up to accord on Bangladesh factory standards

Dhaka complex collapse prompts big clothing brands to get behind accord on plant standards

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Rescuers carry the body of a victim retrieved from the rubble of the site of a garment factory that collapsed in Savar, near Dhaka. Photo: AP

Labour umbrella groups Industrial Global Union and UNI Global Union yesterday praised top retailers for joining their drive to make Bangladesh's garment factories safer, after 1,127 people died in a factory collapse last month.

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"This accord is a turning point. We are putting in place rules that mark the end of the race to the bottom in the global supply chain," UNI Global Union's head Philip Jennings said in a statement.

The two Swiss-based union federations - whose combined global membership numbers 70 million - have worked for years to craft an accord with Western retailers to improve shocking factory conditions.

Their efforts were given greater urgency by the April 24 disaster in which the nine-storey Rana Plaza factory complex crumbled in one of the world's worst industrial disasters.

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The deal compels retailers to hold independent building and fire safety inspections - in a country which has some 60 official inspectors despite needing hundreds - and to pay for repairs.

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