The Alliance for Bangladesh says the country’s garment industry is moving toward being one of the world’s safest, having revealed around 72% of remediation work has been completed to date.
Speaking at the group’s quarterly press conference in Dhaka yesterday (11 April), country director Jim Moriarty highlighted the work the group of North American brands and retailers has been undertaking to improve safety in Bangladesh’s ready-made garment factories, from worker empowerment to training and building safety.
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To date, the Alliance has suspended 142 factories for failure to make adequate progress on remediation and says 71 have now substantially completed their Corrective Action Plans – a figure that is expected to double within the next few months.
Meanwhile, 72% of all required repairs across active Alliance factories have been completed, including 64% percent of all high priority repairs.
“Thanks to these efforts, we’re witnessing a transformation of Bangladesh’s garment industry from one of the most dangerous in the world, to one of the safest,” Moriarty says.
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However, there is no question for the country director that more work lies ahead for the Alliance over the next 15 months.
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By GlobalData“Achieving completion of high-priority repairs—and investing in workers through the Helpline, our safety re-training and the development of safety committees—all remain our laser focus.”
Worker training has been a key component in the group’s mission to build a safer garment industry. In 2014, it implemented a first-of-its-kind training programme that taught almost 1.3m workers how to protect themselves in case of an emergency.
To date, the Alliance says it has re-trained 85% of its workforce to ensure new employees are covered, and those skills stay fresh for all of its workers.
Meanwhile, its confidential Helpline—Amader Kotha—also continues to serve as a “tremendously important resource”, providing employees with a direct line of communication to the Alliance, 24 hours a day, through which they can raise issues of concern anonymously and without fear of retribution.
The Helpline has received more than 125,000 calls to date on issues ranging from wage disputes to concerns about structural safety.
“If only the workers at Rana Plaza had had the ability to challenge management over fears of cracks, that tragedy may have ended much differently,” Moriarty says. “Workers now have a voice, and a team of advocates working to ensure their safety.”
Indeed the Helpline has become such a trusted resource that the Alliance says it routinely receive calls from people in the community, and workers outside of its factories.
“As we look to our transition beyond 2018, we will ensure that the Helpline remains available to Bangladesh’s garment workers without interruption,” adds Moriarty.
In addition, the Alliance will continue to foster the development of Safety Committees in its factories, in a bid to facilitate a more open dialogue between workers and factory management. To date, 140 safety committees have now been formed in Alliance factories.
