Accord factories make good progress in Bangladesh

Staff Correspondent : Factories in Bangladesh inspected under Accord have made overall 90 per cent progress in fixing fire, electrical and structural safety faults. Accord is a platform of European buyers and retailers.

Some 1,120 out of 1,610 Accord-listed readymade garment factories in Bangladesh are behind schedule

in remediating safety hazards. Accord says about 50 per cent of factories still lack adequate fire detection and alarm systems. Accord has covered 1,674 readymade garment factories. Of these 1,610 are inspected and 64 others have been listed for inspection. Out of 1,674 factories, 1,403 are active, 59 factories are inactive and 212 factories are no-brand.
The platform has found discrepancies in building plans and drawings in nearly 22 per cent of the factories and a lack of fire separation in hazardous areas in 16 per cent of the factories.
To support factories, Accord arranged a remediation fund and a total of 141 remediation finance requests have so far been received from the factories, of which 52 have been resolved.
After the Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, EU retailers formed the Accord, undertaking a five-year plan, which set time frames and accountability for inspections and training and worker empowerment programs.