Bangladesh: garment factory inspections to start now

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh – a coalition of more

than 120 international apparel companies, retailers and brands – has finalized the fire, electrical and building inspection standards according to which all member supplier factories are to be assessed.

Reaching this milestone was announced last Tuesday after trial assessments of ten ready-made garment (RMG) factories in and around Dhaka that started in November 2013 had been completed. The remaining garment factory inspections are to start in January itself, with the aim to have completed the inspections of all 1,500 member factories by September 2014.

“The Accord technical team is hopeful of starting its garment factory inspection from this month,” confirmed Roy Ramesh Chandra, secretary general of IndustriALL Bangladesh Council, on Thursday when speaking to the Financial Express.

The fire, electrical and building inspection standards, largely based on the Bangladesh National Building Code, are available on the Accord’s website, BangladeshAccord.org. The finalized version is the result of talks between the Accord members, the National Tripartite Plan of Action and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and were initiated and facilitated by the International Labor Organization.

A ground-breaking development is also the availability of a complete, 30-page list of all member supplier factories on the Accord website. A list of all signatories – international buyers, unions and NGOs as witnesses – is available online as well.