The number of signatories to the Accord on Fire and Building and Safety in Bangladesh has already grown up to 150.
“We are delighted to have reached this milestone so soon. It shows the strength of commitment to the Accord’s aims from a truly international spread of companies. We look forward to more companies joining the Accord,” said Alan Roberts, Executive Director of Bangladesh Accord for International Operations, in a recent statement.
The Accord’s extensive inspection programme will help eradicate dangerous workplaces for some of the world’s most vulnerable workers, said Roberts.
“The businesses that have signed up to the Accord’s legally-binding agreement include many household names, spanning the globe.
The signatories are spread across twenty countries and are drawn from Europe, North America, Australasia and Asia,’’ the statement said.
Following the deadliest incident at Rana Plaza building collapse that killed over 1,100 workers, the retailer platform made commitment to provide financial and technical support to improve fire and building safety standard of RMG factories, from where they source products.
As per their commitment, the Accord will inspect over 1700 factories through September 2014 for fire, electrical, and building safety. The Accord has already appointed inspection companies to roll out an inspection programme to be started in coming months.
The Accord technical team has finalised the fire, electrical and building inspection standards to be utilised for the inspections of all factories producing for signatory brands of the Accord.