The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, an initiative of North American retailers, has suspended business relations with 23 Bangladeshi readymade garment factories considering these risky for the workers’ safety as the units failed to complete remediation and other safety requirements. On the other hand, 17 other factories have been announced fully compliant by Alliance after final inspection. The platform conducted primary inspections at some 837 garment factories and found that almost all the factories needed some form of remediation especially in fire and electrical issues. The consortium of North American buyers and retailers has recently sent letters to the authorities of the factories informing them about the suspension of approval. It has also warned 12 other factories of suspension due to their slow progress in remediation. Industry insiders said 23 factory owners in Chittagong and Dhaka received suspension letters signed by Mesbah Rabin, managing director of Alliance. In the letter, Alliance said that the names of the suspended factories would be removed from the Alliance’s factory list and also be listed on the web site of the platform as ‘Suspended Approval’. The factories listed by Alliance were initially approved to do business with the signatory brands and it was a precondition that the factories would have to go through the inspection and remediation process as per the standard of the group. The factories those have failed to comply with the safety standard of Alliance will be suspended from approval as per the guidelines of the signatory brands. Alliance said that it had made a number of attempts to assist the factories in the remediation process and also informed the factory authorities about the consequence of failing to remediate. Before suspending approval, Alliance had sent warning letters to the factories twice but they did not provided enough evidence of complying with the remediation process. The platform identified incomplete response of the factories to the recommendations made by the government-set review committee. Alliance also said that if the factories wanted to regain approval status gain, they would have to initiate a new inspection and demonstration of commitment to fulfil the requirements of Alliance. The retailers’ group warned 12 other factories of approval suspension due to slow progress in remediation. ‘The Alliance takes factory compliance very seriously as failure by any factory to comply may perpetuate unsafe working conditions and place workers at risk,’ the Alliance’s warning letter said. It asked the factories to provide evidence of remediation progress to the Alliance team within seven days. ‘If we do not receive adequate evidence and communication from you, you may receive notification of suspension,’ the Alliance said in its letter.‘Alliance issued suspension and warning letters to the factories saying that the remediation progresses in the units is not satisfactory. On the other hand, factory owners said that they were behind the schedule in remediation as Alliance made delay in proving detailed engineering assessment reports,’ Mahmaud Hasan Khan Babu, vice-president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told New Age on Thursday. The BGMEA would sit with Alliance to resolve the issue, he said. After the Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, in April 2013, North American retailers including Walmart and Gap, formed Alliance undertaking a five-year plan which set timelines and accountability for inspections and training and workers empowerment programmes.
