Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a platform of European buyers to improve safety standard in the Bangladesh apparel industry, has said it will not be able to complete remediation work within the stipulated deadline.
Following the Rana Plaza factory disaster in 2014, the Accord took a five-year initiative to improve fire, electrical and building safety standard in RMG factories from which its members source products. The tenure of the Accord will end in June, 2018.
Rob Wayss, executive director and acting chief safety inspector of the Accord, made the comment while he was addressing the media on the occasion of its four-year completion at a city hotel on Monday.
“There is a wide consensus among the signatories to the Accord brands, the global apparel companies in the retailers, global unions and its local affiliates that the work of accord will not be completed by June 2018,” said Rob Wayss.
The progress is related to the capacity of social partners to regulate safety in the industry while its progress will still be inadequate, Rob argued.
According to the latest data of the Accord, overall 77% safety hazards in terms of electrical, fire and structural identified in initial inspections have been fixed and 65% initial findings verified.
While 88% safety risks in electrical safety, 71% in fire safety and 57% structural risks have been corrected as of on Monday.
A total of 65 RMG factories out of 1,534 inspected by the Accord have completed all their Corrective Action Plans (CAPs).
Talking on the post-Accord inspection, the retailers representative, Rob, said over the couple of months, several dozens of the current Accord signatory companies and two global unions along with their local affiliates have been in negotiations and discussions.
He also stated that negotiations and discussions are going on and yet to complete. “But we do anticipate that they will come to a conclusion soon and start within next couple of month.”
The Accord, however, said safety risks have got significant improvements and need recognition. It also said a good number of factories are very close to complete the remediation.
The unprecedented model of independent inspections, collective brand leverage, public disclosure, accountability and bipartite governance has proven to be successful, said Rob.
The achievements are laudable with 65 fully remediated factories and more than 400 factories which have completed more than 90% of required safety remediation, said Rob.
