There could be trouble brewing in the Bangladeshi garment industry after the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety cracked the whip, cancelling safety standard improvement process in 23 garment factories as they failed to show sufficient progress in their compliance initiatives. The decision might prompt the Alliance’s signatory brands to sever relations with these factories, according to a newspaper report. “Since these factories have failed to show enough evidence to comply with the Alliance pre-approval and remediation process, they are designated as ‘suspended approval’. Their names have been removed from the Alliance factories list,” said a letter sent to the factories signed by M Rabin, managing director of Alliance Bangladesh. The letter said the Alliance had informed the status to the Accord on Fire and Building safety in Bangladesh and Department of Inspection of Factories and Establishment. According to it, if a company wants to regain the status, it will need to initiate a new inspection and demonstrate commitment by fulfilling the Alliance’s remediation and other requirements. The Alliance informed these factories about its decision through separate letters sent to them on December 22. “Alliance takes factory compliance very seriously, as failure by any factory to comply may perpetuate unsafe working conditions and put workers at risk,” the letter said. Alliance sources said some of the factories had refused to comply with the Alliance recommendations as they didn’t have work orders from the signatory brands. Some of the factories failed to make visible progress with the safety recommendations while some didn’t follow the recommendations made by the government’s review panel, Alliance officials said. The Alliance declared 18 readymade garment factories fully compliant. The Alliance was formed after the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013 that killed over a thousand workers.
