Two former US Senators have expresses their satisfaction over the significant progress made by the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a platform of 26 North American brands and retailers, in enhancing worker safety after completing a year of their operations.
Bipartisan Policy Centre (BPC) Co-founder George Mitchell and Senior Fellow Olympia Snowe expressed their observations while addressing a forum organised to review progress of the body over the past one year, said a statement released Wednesday.
They also added that the findings indicated that the Alliance has made “significant and laudable progress” in the effort to improve safety in Bangladesh garment factories.
“My review, including interviews with stakeholders from all perspectives, has confirmed that the Alliance has made laudable progress in enhancing worker safety in year one of operations,” said Mitchell.
“I commend this effort and challenge the Alliance to continue this hard work in the years to come,” he added.
According to the annual report, the Alliance has completed 100% inspection of its 587 RMG units from where its signatories brand source products while it has found that 50% RMG units completed remediation.
Mitchell further added that the Alliance also plans to continue to establish a culture of safety in Bangladeshi factories, which include training factory security guards and supervisors to prioritize human lives over property, to ensure that owners truly understand the proper way to make factories safe for their workers.
The platform has already submitted a list of 16 factories to the Expert Review Panel, of which 5 are fully closed, 9 are partially closed while the rest are not suggested for closure as yet.
“The process yielded an unprecedented, five-year agreement among the overwhelming majority of US importers of ready-made garments from Bangladesh which established an ambitious blueprint for change, legally binding upon its members, and built upon the principles of cooperation, transparency, and accountability,” said Olympia Snowe in the statement.
Over the past year, the Alliance also trained 1.1 million workers on basic fire safety of which 97.8% can correctly identify what to do in case of fire, the statement said.
“We are pleased with the progress at our one-year mark and believe the right plan and partners are in place to continue this momentum and create lasting change in Bangladesh. But we also seek to constantly strengthen our approach—so that we leave behind the process and capacity that is needed to ensure long-term and sustainable changes to factory safety,” said Ellen Tauscher, independent chair to the Alliance board.
Apart from that, the body also conducted a comprehensive baseline survey and findings that showed workers, who could correctly identify what to do in case of a fire, increased from 39% to 98%, and those who could correctly identify the five most common fire hazards increased from 2% to 51% following the basic fire safety training.
The retailers platform also compensated more than 1,000 workers displaced as a result of factory remediation or closure and pledged to provide 50% of lost wages for up to 4 months.
The Alliance committed itself to improve safety standard, including fire, electrical and structural safety following the collapse of Rana Plaza, which killed 1,135 workers and injured over 2,500 last year.
