North American retailers to improve Bangla factory safety

The initiative tackles the most pressing challenges identified within the country’s rapidly expanded garment manufacturing industry, with specific and measurable actions, including:

Factory Inspections and Safety Commitment: Within one year, 100 percent of all factories that conduct work with an alliance member will be inspected. Members have agreed to work only with factories that ensure a safe working environment, and as a result, all have committed to refusing to source from any factory the member determines is unsafe.

Establishing Common Safety Standards for Factories: To work with “one voice,” common safety standards will be developed and in place by October of this year. Members of the alliance will share inspection results, following the adoption of the Alliance Fire and Building Safety Standards. Inspection results will be shared anonymously through an independent organization, the Fair Factories Clearinghouse, so that factories with dangerous safety conditions are immediately identified; these findings are transparently communicated to factory owners, workers and the government; and problems quickly addressed.

Worker Training: Ensures ongoing, mandatory training and education for factory workers and managers, and that all alliance factories actively support the democratic election and successful operation of Worker Participation Committees at each factory. These committees provide a forum for workers to raise safety and workplace concerns without fear of retaliation.

Worker Voice: To further empower workers, an anonymous worker hotline will be established by November of this year that will use mobile technology and be administered by a third party.

Oversight of Alliance: To govern the alliance and ensure the retailer members follow through on their commitments, a nine-member Board of Directors has been established. The makeup of the board provides an independent level of review, with four retailers, four stakeholders who provide specific expertise, and an independent board chair. The chair is expected to be named within the next few weeks.

Semi-annual Progress Reports: To ensure accountability and given the specific deadlines put forward by the alliance, the Board of Directors will make public semiannual progress reports of the alliance programs against the objectives of the initiative. In addition, the alliance has asked Senators Mitchell and Snowe to provide independent verification of the program’s effectiveness over at least the first two years.