Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh

The Accord is an independent, legally binding agreement between brands and trade unions to work towards a safe and healthy garment and textile industry in Bangladesh. It was created to enable a working environment in which no worker needs to fear fires, building collapses, or other accidents that could be prevented with reasonable health and safety measures.

Under the terms of the Accord, company signatories disclose all their RMG supplier factories and, on a voluntary basis, their home textiles and fabric & knit accessory suppliers in Bangladesh. All factories covered by the Accord receive initial inspections and periodic follow-up inspections conducted by in-house engineers to monitor and verify remedial measures.

On the basis of the initial inspection findings, a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) is developed for each covered factory, which is updated after each follow-up inspection. The CAP details what remedial actions will be taken with a clear timeline and a financial plan.

Under the Accord, signatory companies are required to negotiate commercial terms with their suppliers which ensure that it is financially feasible for factories to maintain safe workplaces and comply with the remediation requirements. Signatory companies have used various types of financial assistance to make it financially feasible for their supplier factories to remediate including guaranteed order volumes for longer periods, higher volumes, soft loans, order pre-payment to improve cash-flow or direct cash assistance.

Furthermore, joint labour-management Safety Committees at Accord-covered factories are trained to address and monitor workplace safety and all the workers in the factory are informed about essential workplace safety. Additionally, the Accord signatories provide workers and their representatives at the factories they supply from with a Safety and Health Complaints Mechanism to remedy safety concerns which are not being effectively addressed at the factory level.

On 1st June 2020 the functions of the Accord Office in Bangladesh transitioned to a newly established labour-brands-industry organisation called RMG Sustainability Council (RSC). The Accord has since been reporting on safety progress achieved by the Accord-covered factories based on the data and information provided by the RSC to the Accord Foundation in the Netherlands.