Ahead of a decision by Bangladesh’s supreme court on the future of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in the country, an analysis of the government’s factory remediation data shows a “shocking level of unreadiness” to take over the Accord’s work.
The investigation by a consortium of labour rights organisations is based on two government-run databases intended to provide information on the remediation of garment factories.
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Not only are these “inconsistent and fail to provide information on follow-up inspections,” but none of the 745 factories under the government’s inspection programme have eliminated high risk safety hazards – all of which were identified between three and five years ago.
The Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labor Rights Forum, Maquila Solidarity Network, and Worker Rights Consortium, who are behind the research, say that shuttering the Accord’s local office would put workers’ safety at risk.
The findings show that high risk hazards at the 745 factories include, for example, lockable exit ways which, in the event of a fire, could leave workers trapped inside. Issues like this should – and could – have been eliminated immediately after being identified.
The government has the power to shut down factories that are deemed so dangerous that workers’ immediate safety is at risk. But while the Accord identified 114 such critically unsafe factories, which it subsequently terminated from its inspection programme, “half of these same facilities remain open under the government’s inspection programme.
“There is no indication in the government’s own records that any safety improvements have been made to these factories,” the NGOs say.
The government of Bangladesh is using proceedings before the supreme court of Bangladesh to prevent the Transition Accord from operating. This is the successor to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety, the safety programme established in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza collapse, which expired last year at the end of its five-year term.
Court ruling
The court decision has already been pushed back six times, with the ruling now due on 7 April in Bangladesh’s Appellate Court. This could require the Accord to close its Dhaka office and operations.
The government’s justification for trying to end the Accord’s work depends entirely on its claim that the government is ready to assume responsibility for the 1,688 factories under the Accord’s purview.
International stakeholders, including Accord signatory brands and retailers, have been saying for months that the government’s Remediation Coordination Cell (RCC) is unprepared to take on this role.
Adding support to these claims, the labour rights groups say their research also shows the government claims to have received 18 complaints since 2013. The Accord, on the other hand, received 1,152 complaints in that same time period. The stark difference in the use of each complaint mechanism could be attributed, in part, they say “to the fact that the government does not guarantee workers anonymity when they file complaints through its mechanism.”
The Bangladesh government has also stated in multiple public forums that 29% of all required renovations at the factories under its purview have been completed.
“A closer look at the government’s own data proves that this is a gross overstatement of the facts. 346 of the 400 factories (for which there is available information) have completed less than 20% of all required safety renovations. Only two factories have completed between 21 and 40% of remediation. There is no information on the remaining 52 factories. By contrast, 89% of renovations required at all factories covered by the Accord have been completed.”
Both the brand and labour signatories of the 2018 Transition Accord say they are committed to transfer the inspection and remediation work once a credible national regulatory agency is in place.
But the consensus from international stakeholders is that Bangladesh’s national inspection agencies do not yet meet the expected standard when it comes to transparency, monitoring, or enforcement. “The government’s inspection agencies also lag far behind in completing the remediation work at garment factories producing for non-Accord brands, or for the domestic market.”
The government of Bangladesh, however, is asserting that its inspection bodies are ready to take over the work and is pushing for a swift transfer of not only the inspection and remediation work, but also of the safety complaints process and the safety training programmes carried out by the Accord.
It “has refused to discuss a conditional process based on an evaluation of readiness criteria,” the labour rights groups say.
Their concerns come just days after 26 people were killed in a fire at a multi-storey commercial building in Dhaka. And last month a fire broke out at a building that housed garment maker Anzir Apparels Ltd, which was removed from the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety’s list of approved factories in 2016 for failing to make adequate remediation progress.
These latest fires again cast doubts over the Bangladesh government’s will, capacity or readiness to enforce safety regulations for housing, commercial and industrial setups.
