The National Retail Federation (NRF), the world’s largest retail trade association, has expressed satisfaction over improvements in workplace safety in the garment sector in Bangladesh.Headquartered in Washington, NRF represents discount and department stores, home goods, specialty stores, main street merchants, grocers, wholesalers, chain restaurants and internet retailers from the US and more than 45 other countries.“We saw first-hand in the past few days that significant progress has been made in improving the condition in the factories in Bangladesh and that work is on track to see more improvements in the future,” David French, NRF senior vice president for government relations, said in a statement on Tuesday.NRF is the largest private sector employer in the US, supporting one in four US jobs — 42 million working Americans, the association said in a statement. Contributing $2.6 trillion to annual GDP, NRF is a daily barometer for the US economy.A majority of the companies that buy garment products from Bangladesh and are members of the Accord and Alliance, are also members of the NRF.The garment sector in Bangladesh underwent massive reforms as the government, retailers and brands took up quite a few safety initiatives after the twin fatal industrial disasters — Tazreen Fashions fire and Rana Plaza building collapse.“The Alliance is doing important work to ensure the safety of Bangladeshi workers, who make clothing worn by millions of Americans and other consumers around the world,” French said. “Worker safety is a top priority for the US retailers, whether those workers are here in our stores or in a factory on the other side of the world,” said Jonathan Gold, NRF vice president for supply chain and customs policy. “That’s why we went to Bangladesh to see for ourselves what is being done.”French and Gold spent two days in Dhaka last week, as part of a trip that also included visits to factories, warehouses and trade associations. In Dhaka, the two met the US labour attaché, and executives of the Alliance and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association. They also toured one of the first factories to complete Alliance’s audit and compliance programme, and visited a laboratory that conducts factory testing, according to the statement.NRF helped bring together 26 apparel brands to form the Alliance in response to the 2013 Rana Plaza garment factory collapse in Dhaka that killed more than 1,100 people and injured more than 2,500.
