Western retailers open Bangladesh garment factories to inspections

A grouping of 70 Western retailers and brands will inspect the safety standards of Bangladeshi garment units in the wake of global uproar following the collapse of a commercial building here in April that killed 1,129 people in one of the world’s worst industrial disasters.

“Initial inspections at every factory will be completed at the latest within nine months and plans for renovations and repairs will be put in place where necessary,” local media today reported quoting a statement of the buyers’ consortium issued in Geneva yesterday.

“Our mission is clear: to ensure the safety of all workers in the Bangladesh garment industry. Direct involvement of workers in the factories is key to the success of this programme,” the statement said.

The grouping of the mostly European retailers said under a steering committee they would also provide funds for renovation of factories if they are found to be at risk.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association cautiously welcomed the move, saying the inspection was expected to benefit the country’s crucial industry, one of the main foreign exchange earners.

“If retailers do something positive, our industries will be immensely benefited. But if they impose harsh terms and conditions, we will not be able to implement those, and eventually it will have negative impact on industries,” BGMEA President, Atiqul Islam, said in a statement.

According to BGMEA officials, the buyers’ representatives comprising local and international experts would focus on structural faults of the factories that could cause accidents like fire or collapse.

The consortium was formed under an accord two months after the collapse of the eight-story RanaPlaza in April on the outskirts of Dhaka under the initiatives of IndustriALL and UNI Global Union.

Major signatories to the accord include H&M, Carrefour, Marks & Spencer and PVH, the parent company of Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger but most US retail giants like Wal-Mart, Gap and Target excluded them from the groping saying they planned to carry out separate inspections.

The inspection plan came 10 days after the US suspended Bangladesh’s preferential trading status in its market over the safety standards in factories as well as workers’ rights while Dhaka feared similar step from the European Union.

The EU, however, assured that they were unlikely to suspend the preferential facility under the Generalised System of Preference but insisted that Bangladesh must take effective steps to improve the factory safety standards.

The poor safety records earned the country a bad repute after a series of accidents in the past several years.

EU officials earlier said they hoped the threat of action would be enough to make Bangladesh change its laws in order to retain the market, which forms over a quarter of the south Asian state’s $40.5 billion annual exports in 2011.

According to the consortium plan, an emergency protocol will ensure swift action to protect workers at any factory where existing inspection programmes or worker reports identify an immediate threat to life and limb.

The Geneva statement said any signatory company of the grouping which currently used a factory in question would be notified immediately and the factory owner would be asked to cease operations pending further investigation or repairs.

“With the involvement of local unions, factory workers will be informed of the potential danger and their right to refuse to enter a potentially unsafe building,” it said.

It also added that a viable plan with renovations and repairs undertaken to address the hazards would be produced and workers would be paid while the factory remained closed.

“This is the only way to bring about long-term, sustainable change in the garment industry in Bangladesh,” ethical trading manager of N. Brown Group Andy York told Bangladesh’s Financial Express newspaper.

He said the BGMEA and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers ad Exporters Association too would be involved in the process while factory data from all signatory-companies would be collected by July 15, along with details about each factory building.

The New York Times, meanwhile, said the Western retailers agreed to send in by July 15 the names and addresses of all Bangladeshi factories they use to allow for inspections.

“In an unusual move, the list of these factories, expected to total nearly 1,000, will be made public, as will the inspection reports. Companies often resist disclosing the names of their overseas suppliers for fear of competitors stealing them,” the report said.

Amid the global uproar about workers rights and safety, Bangladesh in recent months, however, amended labour law, signed an ILO-led government-employer-worker tripartite agreement to implement time-bound decisions, and formed a ministerial committee to ensure compliance in garments units.

The garment industry generates $20 billion-a-year for Bangladesh while some 4,500 factories employ 3.6 million workers, mostly women and account for 77 per cent of the country’s exports paying a worker the minimum wage of $38 a month.