Less than three months after hundreds of garment workers died when a building collapsed in Bangladesh, leading North American retailers have signed a sweeping pact to improve safety conditions for workers in the South Asian country.
Unveiled Wednesday, the Bangladesh Worker Safety Initiative is a five-year binding commitment by leading apparel retailers, who have co-founded the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.
Seventeen retailers covering the majority of North American apparel imports from Bangladesh signed the initiative, which will focus on aggressive inspections, training, worker empowerment and increased government relations in the Bangladeshi garment industry with the aim of offering increased protection to garment workers.
Retailers who joined the initiative include Canadian Tire, Hudson鈥檚 Bay, J.C. Penney, Sears, Walmart and Target. Collectively, the group members represent North American imports produced at more than 500 Bangladeshi factories.
The initiative focuses on an 鈥渁ggressive timeline鈥� for inspectors, who will be expected to prioritize safety risks for remediation efforts, and report dangerous worker conditions to building owners, the alliance, government and Worker Participation Committees at each factory. If need be, inspectors will be given the authority to shut down a factory and force an evacuation.
The member retailers have committed $42 million toward the initiative, with another $100 million from some companies in loans and capital to ensure timely repairs at factories.
Other actions to be undertaken include:
- Inspections of all alliance member factories within the first year
- Common safety standards developed within next three months
- Worker training and empowerment
- Independent oversight of the alliance
- Semi-annual progress reports
- Increased relations with Bangladeshi government
The precarious safety conditions of garment workers in Bangladesh came under intense scrutiny following the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building on April 24. With a death toll pegged at 1,127, the collapse is considered the deadliest garment-related industry disaster in history.
Large western retailers also came under fire for failing to provide more oversight and care for workers in factories where their products are made.
In a joint statement released Wednesday, the CEOs of the retailer members said the safety record of Bangladeshi factories is 鈥渦nacceptable鈥� and requires collective effort.
鈥淲e can prevent future tragedies by consolidating and amplifying our individual efforts to bring about real and sustained progress.鈥�
The measures and actions within the agreement were developed under the guidance of U.S. Senators George J. Mitchell and Olympia Snowe at the Bipartisan Policy Center, and involving various stakeholders and consultations.
In the statement, Senator Snowe said the initiative will produce solutions and results for Bangladeshi garment workers.
鈥淲e all share a deep sense of collective responsibility to prevent the horrific loss of human life we鈥檝e witnessed in Bangladesh from ever recurring,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he Alliance has put forth a serious agreement, born out of a collaborative process with input from a variety of stakeholders, that constitutes a substantive and timely step forward in protecting Bangladeshi workers.鈥�
