Bangladesh Worker Safety, a platform of North American brands and retailers, has listed 130 readymade garment factories to give them a two-month ultimatum — either they make required progress in factory remediation or they will face severance of business ties, as the progress made so far by the factories is below 50 per cent. The buyers’ platform has also taken an initiative to counsel the factory owners in the presence of representatives from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association with the aim of expediting the remediation work in the factories. ‘The Alliance has prepared a list of 130 supplier factories, in which progress in remediation is below 50 per cent, to give the factory authorities coaching to create pace in fixing safety issues,’ BGMEA vice-president Mahmud Hassan Khan Babu told New Age on Monday. He said that two coaching sessions would be held — one in Dhaka on November 23 and another in Chittagong December 5. Babu said that following the coaching sessions the factories would get one month to make required progress. If the factories fail, they will receive the first warning letter with 15 more days to make progress, he said. If the factories fail again to make the required progress by the time, they will get the second warning letter with advice to make a certain degree of progress by the next 15 days, he said. After the two-month process, defaulting units will have to face business termination by the brands and buyers under the Alliance, Babu said. The BGMEA leader, however, said that before starting coaching sessions the Alliance would provide the list of the 130 factories to the trade body. ‘After getting the list we will send email or letter to the factories asking them to speed up their remediation work so that they can avoid business termination by the brands and buyers,’ Babu said. After the Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, in April 2013, North American retailers, including top brands Walmart and Gap, formed the Alliance undertaking a five-year plan which set timeframes and accountability for safety inspections and training and workers’ empowerment programmes. The Alliance has so far conducted initial inspections at 759 factories and due to failure in making required progress in remediation, the platform cut business relations with 104 supplier factories. The Alliance, in its third annual report released this month, said that 55 per cent of its listed factories had completed high-priority repairs. But the listed factories finished 63 per cent of all required repairs, it said.
