Less than 2% of the 760 apparel factories inspected by The Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety were identified as being vulnerable. Among the inspected factories, 59 were found to be critical and in need of remediation, but could be made compliant through corrective development.
This is good news for a country that witnessed the disastrous collapse of Rana Plaza, which resulted in the lives of more than 1,000 of the factory’s workers being lost, little more than a year ago.
The 2013 Savar building collapse worked to fatally expose the inadequate safety regime in our country, where RMG factories often lack sufficient technical equipment and the expertise required.
This new statistic is a good indicator that RMG factory owners have at least been shaken from their complacency and indifference to actually taking measurable steps in avoiding further disasters of this magnitude.
It is also good to know that both Accord and The Alliance for Workers Safety Bangladesh are performing their duties of inspecting RMG factories around the country competently, and are publishing their reports clearly and without much confusion.
Although it is good news that less than 2% of all the inspected factories were found to have been vulnerable, ideally, that number should be zero.
Making sure of workers’ safety is a continuous process, we should not interpret this new finding, however positive, as a sign that our work is done. We need to hold our factories to a higher standard than we currently do, and really make our workers feel safer, not just on paper.
