Having announced it will transfer its operations to a new safety monitoring organisation before the end of the year, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety has a busy nine months ahead if it is to also complete the vast majority of remediation across its affiliated factories. Yet, country director Jim Moriarty tells just-style he remains confident the total number of factories having completed their (CAPs) will reach the 500 mark within the next four to five months.
Speaking to just-style last week following its quarterly press call, Moriarty said the group is aiming to see 500 facilities reach completion of their CAPs by the summer.
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“We are confident that we can successfully complete 90% of non-compliant safety issues requiring remediation, with around 500 factories achieving closure of their CAPs, by July-August of this year. We are also working on over 100 expansions, and we are revisiting factories that have previously achieved CAP closure to ensure that they continue to maintain and improve upon the standards they have achieved in their factories.”
Both the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety were set up in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed more than 1,100 workers nearly five years ago.
The Alliance performs independent inspections on the structural, electrical and fire safety of all factories from which its members source. Each factory is then provided with a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) designed to help it address safety issues and achieve compliance with Alliance safety standards.
It also provides technical advice and access to low-cost loans to assist factories with remediation and is due to expire in mid-2018. After this point, it will transition its work to locally-based partners and help set up a new safety organisation that will work to continue its factory safety monitoring and worker empowerment initiatives.
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By GlobalDataThe Bangladesh Accord is also set to end at the same time but has since been granted a six-month extension to operate beyond this date, if at that point a new national regulatory body is not yet ready to take over its work, as is widely anticipated.
Bangladesh Accord and Alliance to end tenures next year
A new 2018 Accord was announced at the OECD Global Forum on Responsible Business Conduct in Paris on 29 June. Signatories so far, which numbered 128 as per 26 March, also include Kmart Australia, Target Australia, C&A, Otto, KiK, Aldi South, Aldi North, Lidl, Tchibo, LC Waikiki, Helly Hansen, Adidas, PVH Corp and N Brown Group.
Bangladesh ‘2018 Accord’ promises new worker protections
The Alliance, which mainly represents North American brands and retailers, currently has 666 active factories supplying its member companies, encompassing just shy of 1.3m workers.
Of those 666 factories, Moriarty explains 147 are being remediated under the Bangladesh Accord, which has the lead on those “shared factories”. Of the remaining 519 factories, 322 – or 62% – have already completed their Corrective Action Plans (CAPs), leaving 197 outstanding.
Meanwhile, the Alliance says 88% of non-compliant safety issues requiring remediation have been completed, including 84% of high-priority repairs, while more than 1.5m workers have been trained in basic fire safety and some 1,000 factories have implemented both basic training and a refresher course.
Other highlights include the training of more than 27,000 security guards and in excess of 1.4m workers across nearly 1,000 factories having access to the group’s Amader Kotha (‘Our Voice’) toll-free, confidential worker helpline.
“I am pleased to note that the Alliance continues to achieve unprecedented progress in our efforts to improve safety within the ready-made garment industry in Bangladesh. Our factory remediation work is progressing at a rapid pace, and we remain on track to meet our stated commitments by the end of the year,” Moriarty said during last week’s call.
The Alliance claims since its inception, 91% of factories that required structural retrofitting have completed this, meaning their foundations, columns and beams are now able to meet the imposed load demands required of an industrial building.
Meanwhile, 84% of those needing to install sprinkler systems have done so, and “nearly all” factories have upgraded their outdated electrical systems, and installed fire doors that provide an escape route for workers and help stop a fire from spreading.
“All of these advancements aren’t just good for the safety and well-being of workers. They are good for business,” says Moriarty. “Upgraded factories can help keep Bangladesh on the map globally as a trusted supplier, and will protect against accidents that can destroy lives, property and products, and exact a huge human and financial toll.
“But truly achieving a sea change in factory safety is about more than remediating factories. We have focused intently on training workers and equipping them with the tools to empower themselves in the workplace.”
Committed to safety
While Moriarty adds the Alliance is “extremely proud” of the progress it has made in the last five years, if these gains are to be sustained over the long-term, he says they must be owned and led locally, from within Bangladesh.
“The government and all other parties involved must commit themselves to making safety the rule, not the exception, in factories throughout the country.”
In November last year, the Alliance told just-style it was making “steady headway” towards partnering on a new safety organisation in Bangladesh that would be “independent, credible, and operate on a sustainable business model”.
“We need to have that independence and credibility and make sure that there are no avenues for external forces to bring influence upon the decisions of the organisation.”
Now Moriarty says the Alliance will transition its operations to “trusted local partners” by the end of the year, which will continue to oversee factory inspections, monitoring, Amader Kotha, and Alliance training programmes.
“Our job now is to transfer our knowledge, best practices and worker safety innovations to credible partners who can own and continue this work locally, which is the only way it can truly be sustained over the long term.”
And “credible” is the key word for Moriarty. Speaking to just-style he explains the importance of establishing an organisation that bases its safety decision on “technical matters” and, therefore could not be questioned or overturned by “external forces.”
“We need to have that independence and credibility and make sure there are no avenues for external forces to bring influence upon the decisions of the organisation,” he tells just-style. “And that’s not impossible. We’re in talks with the government about such an organisation and with the BGMEA. We’ve made it clear that independence and credibility is absolutely vital to our member brands and I think all of our partners here in Bangladesh understand that.
“Make no mistake about it: Alliance member brands are committed to safety. The new safety monitoring organisation, funded largely by member brands, will continue to require that factories meet the high safety standards implemented by the Alliance.”
