Garment brands urged to sign International Accord for workers' safety

The Accord for Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh was initially signed in May 2013 between UNI Global Union, IndustriALL Global Union, eight Bangladeshi trade unions and 40 brands.

Over 190 brands and retailers signed the 2018 Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Transition Accord) with UNI and IndustriALL in June 2018.

In May 2019, the Accord Steering Committee signed a memorandum of understanding with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers Association (BGMEA) in which it was agreed to establish a national, independent organisation, the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC) to carry forward the workplace safety programmes of the Accord in Bangladesh.

In 2021 the Accord signatories reached a new phase in their partnership and established the International Accord. This came into effect on September 1, 2021, with 77 brand signatories. As of 20 April 2023, International Accord has 164 brands and retailers as signatories.

Accord has since transformed factory safety in Bangladesh’s garment industry, given workers the right to refuse unsafe work, saved lives, supported freedom of association and increased collective bargaining, a press release from IndustriALL said.

Currently 194 brands and retailers are signatory to the Accord, covering around 2.4 million workers in Bangladesh, and 46 brands and retailers have so far signed the Pakistan Accord, which will include 750,000 workers in that country once the inspection programme is implemented.

US companies like Levi’s, Gap, Walmart and Amazon have refused to sign the Accord. The unions feel these big brands becoming signatory to the Accord will protect more garment and textile workers from dangerous conditions and will strengthen the push for the agreement’s renewal this year.

“On this solemn anniversary [of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh], we mourn for the lives lost and forever changed by the Rana Plaza tragedy, and we honour them by making sure that another disaster like this never happens again. The best way to do that is to expand the Accord’s work and number of brand signatories,” said UNI Global Union general secretary Christy Hoffman.

To date, there have been nearly 56,000 inspections safety inspections across over 2,400 garment factories in Bangladesh. More than 140,000 safety instances corrected, and the total remediation progress rate across the factories currently covered Accord is 91 per cent.

The Pakistan Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry (Pakistan Accord) between UNI, IndustriALL and brands and retailers was announced in December last year. It has 46 signatories.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (DS)