Currently, RMG factories are being inspected by Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and the National Initiative to improve workplace safety in the apparel industry. The tripartite inspection will end in June 2018, which started in mid-2014 to improve safety in Bangladesh RMG sector. A BGMEA committee formed to prepare guidelines for setting up a new platform to oversee post-Accord and Alliance safety assessment in the apparel industry has made the recommendation, sources at BGMEA told the Dhaka Tribune. The recommendations will be placed before the BGMEA board in a meeting, scheduled to be held early December for the approval. The aim of the single platform is to bring all inspections under a common platform to avoid extra expenses, time and hassle. “Manufacturers do not want to depend on foreign initiatives for a long time for safety inspection and other related issues. That is why the committee recommended forming a single platform,” a committee member, seeking anonymity, told the Dhaka Tribune. In the proposed platform, there will have representative from the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), BGMEA, BKMEA, buyers, Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, Labour and Employment Ministry and RAJUK, International Labour Organisation (ILO) and worker federations. It is a long-term vision of the sector that is keen to see a single platform, which will oversee the safety standards, workers rights and social compliance issues instead of individual inspection, said another member of the committee. “We do not want elimination of Accord and Alliance. Instead of their extensions, we want a new platform with all stakeholders,” he added. The formation of the platform will finally come into being only after having discussions with all the stakeholders, he added. A widespread public outcry over safety began after the Rana Plaza factory disaster that killed more than 1,135 workers and injured over 2,500 people on April 24, 2013. In 2014, the Accord on Fire and Building safety and Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety took a five-year initiative to improve fire, electrical and building safety standard in RMG factories from which their members source products.
