Five bodies commit to improve Bangla working conditions

The Safer Factories Initiative, as highlighted below, is a strong and sustainable action plan to improve worker safety in Bangladesh now and into the future.

Collaboration is an essential component of efforts to improve worker safety in Bangladesh.  The joint effort of all stakeholders, including the Bangladesh government, factory owners, workers, buyers in North America and Europe, members of civil society, and organized labor, are essential to identify viable solutions and implement a successful and sustainable plan of corrective action, as described in the Safer Factories Initiative.

Additionally, the Safer Factories Initiative would cover all apparel factories in Bangladesh and proposes significant training programs for electricians and engineers to ensure proper building safety standards are met.

Given the global nature of the apparel and retail industry, applying a legal standard is a very complex proposition.  The Safer Factories Initiative understands that flexibility is required to address a broad array of worker safety issues and enables brands and retailers to respond swiftly and effectively to an ever-changing environment.

Many U.S. and Canadian brands and retailers recognize that worker safety and compliance is based on continuous improvement to keep up with emerging safety concerns.  With that in mind, we continue to pursue a sustainable industry-wide solution to improve worker safety.

The North American Bangladesh Worker Safety Working Group has been working together for several months on a broader proposal to improve worker safety in Bangladesh that more effectively recognizes and addresses the myriad and complex issues underlying the factory safety issue in Bangladesh.

Working Group Objectives

As noted previously, many companies have invested significant resources in recognition of the pivotal role education and training plays in advancing worker safety.  As part of the short-term objectives of the Safer Factories Initiative, the industry will build on this work to re-double efforts to educate workers and factory management about fire prevention and workplace safety. 

The initiative will specifically empower workers to be cognizant of workplace safety concerns and equip workers to respond swiftly and appropriately to safety concerns. In order to maximize the impact of this initiative, buyers will develop mechanisms to share information on trainings to ensure that the training can reach the most number of workers and factories possible.

Despite the best efforts of brands and retailers who routinely audit factories for a variety of compliance needs, and more recent efforts by many companies to conduct assessment focused on building and fire safety, much more work remains to be done.  Further, efforts to conduct these assessments have been hampered by lack of a clear industry standard for fire and building safety.

The Safer Factories Initiative calls for buyers to work in conjunction with the Bangladeshi government, Bangladeshi factory owners, and Bangladeshi workers to develop and implement an industry standard on fire and building safety and conduct assessments of all factories based on those standards.