The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a consortium of North American fashion retailers and buyers, has cut business relations with seven more Bangladeshi readymade garment units in March due to their failure in making required progress in factory remediation. With the seven, the total number of RMG factories with which the Alliance has severed business ties reached 141. The platform, however, published the names of four factories and the addresses where the rest three units are located. The three unnamed factories faced suspension due to irreparable faults at the buildings where those are housed. The four suspended factories are: Starlight Knitwear Ltd at Mirpur in the Dhaka city, Rupa Fabrics Ltd and Rupa Knitwear (Pvt) Ltd in Gazipur and Clear Tex Industries Ltd in Chittagong. The three faulty buildings are situated in Dhaka, Gazipur and Chittagong. The authorities of the three factories housed in the buildings have already closed their units to relocate those to new places. After the Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, in April 2013, North American retailers formed the Alliance and European retailers formed the Accord on Fire And Building Safety in Bangladesh undertaking a five-year plan which set timeframe and accountability for inspections and training and workers’ empowerment programmes. The Alliance has so far conducted initial inspections at 759 factories. On the other hand, the Accord has inspected more than 1,600 RMG factories and terminated business relations with 69 production units of 49 supplier companies. In March, three more Alliance factories including a shoe factory successfully implemented corrective action plan. The three factories are: Karnaphuli Shoes Industries Limited at Korean EPZ in Chittagong, Envoy Textiles Ltd in Mymensingh and Savar Dyeing and Finishing Ind at Ashulia in Dhaka. With the three, the total number of remediated factories under the Alliance’s programme reached 69. On the other hand, four more Accord suppliers’ factories completed all the remediation successfully in the month bringing the total number of remediated factories under its programme to 56. The four factories are: Beximco Apparels Ltd, Oasis Fashion Ltd (unit-2) and Crossline Knit Fabrics Ltd in Gazipur, and AKH Eco Apparels Ltd at Dhamrai in Dhaka.
