The Accord handed over responsibilities of dozens of factories to a government agency and the ILO to address ‘serious’ safety issue it detected in the units, officials said. The western retailers’ group of over 200 mostly European apparel companies and buyers recently sent a list of some 60 buildings, where fire, electrical and structural assessments were completely or partially made, to the state-run Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE). The Accord discontinued monitoring the buildings, saying Accord-linked factories no longer operate in the inspected buildings or its signatory members are not doing business with some of them, they said. It also transferred responsibility of some 16 factories to the International Labour Organization (ILO) to include the units in its inspection programme, saying they are no more included in Accord’s factory list. ILO confirmed that it had received request for some nine factories from the Accord. “We have a couple of different categories of factories or buildings for which we are sending our reports to either the Inspector General of DIFE or to the ILO under the NTC (national tripartite committee),” Chief Safety Inspector of Accord Brad Loewen told the FE in an email. Accord sent the reports of factories that voluntarily moved, relocated or closed operations to the DIFE as there might be other operating factories or establishments in the buildings, though Accord has done one or more of fire, electrical or structural inspections, he noted.
