Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association urged the government to make the Accord, a factory safety initiative of the retailers, follow the land’s law in its activities.
BGMEA President Atiqul Islam made the call in a letter on May 9 to Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed.
“We urged the government to look into the matter. Many factory owners alleged that the Accord was crossing its jurisdiction and even sometimes threatened to declare factories non-compliant,” said a BGMEA high official referring to the letter.
He said the Accord tried to force them to follow its own laws beyond the country’s laws.
“As I told you before, Accord is creating problems for some factories and even threatens to declare them non-compliant. It is to destroy the business of the exporters,” the official alleged.
According to the BGMEA, although the Accord was for improving safety standards in the garment factories in Bangladesh, it’s going now beyond its duties.
“The Accord has trained workers activists to act as Field Resource People to visit factories to agitate workers on compliance issues,” BGMEA alleged.
BGMEA said the Accord also got involved in labour management issues such as payment of wages to workers when a factory is closed down due to safety risk.
In these circumstances, the factory management followed Bangladesh rules, but the Accord refused to accept that.
It put pressure on the owners to follow provisions in the Accord Agreement for the payment of workers’ wages.
“Considering the situation, we urge you (commerce minister) to kindly look into the situation sincerely and take appropriate measures to keep the Accord activities within the bounds of the law of the country,” BGMEA letter read.
Despite repeated attempts, the Dhaka Tribune failed to communicate with Accord executive director Rob Wayss for his comment regarding the allegations.
He didn’t make any answer to this correspondent’s phone calls and e-mails.
The Western retailers took initiatives to improve safety standards in Bangladesh garment factories following the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013 which killed over 1,135 garment workers and injured more than 2,500.
After the country’s deadliest industrial accident, the retailers’ platform Accord made a commitment to provide financial and technical supports to improve fire and building safety standards of the RMG factories.