Two separate platforms of global apparel buyers and retailers have severed business relations with four more readymade garment factories in Bangladesh on charge of failure in making required progress in remediation work. Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, the North American buyers’ group, suspended Shamsher Apparels Ltd in the Dhaka city, Mika Fashion Ltd in Gazipur and Hemple Rhee Mfg Co (BD) Ltd in Chittagong from its supplier list as the factories failed to provide evidence of remediation and failed to submit design documents to the platform. The North American buyers’ group announced the official suspension of operations with three additional factories on charge of failure to show evidence of remediation progress, the Alliance said in a statement on Tuesday. The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, the European retailers’ group, has cut business relation with Fresh Apparels Ltd in Narayanganj. The total number of RMG factories with which global buyers cut business relations reached to 113. Of them, the Alliance alone cut business ties with 83 factories. In the statement Alliance country director Jim Moriarty said ensuring worker safety was the top priority for the platform. ‘Factories with which we do business must undertake repairs in order to meet our safety standards, or they lose their right to make garments for our member companies, without exception,’ he said. In a separate statement the Accord said the platform conducted inspection of Fresh Apparels on March 16, 2015 and found a number of problems that could cause serious harm to workers. The Accord asked Fresh Apparels to make some changes to eliminate these risks but the factory authorities have so far failed to remove collapsible gates and locking features from the egress doors/gates and failed to install fire doors and a good fire alarm system. The EU retailers’ group has said if workers of the unsafe Fresh Apparels choose not to work at the factory because of safety risks the brands linked to the Accord will make an effort to help them find jobs at nearby factories that are safe.
