Global rights groups have pressed for bringing the potential safety hazards including boilers, generators, gas lines and freight elevators in garment factories under the Accord’s inspection purview. Currently, these segments are outside the Accord’s inspection. They also requested the Bangladesh government, factory owners and global apparel brands for initiating measures to ensure necessary medical care and compensation to the families affected by the boiler explosion. The demands came in the backdrop of latest boiler explosion in a garment factory — Multifabs Limited — located at Gazipur that killed at least 13 workers and injured 50 others. Signatories of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh — Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labor Rights Forum, Worker Rights Consortium and Maquila Solidarity Network — made the demands in a joint statement issued Tuesday. “The boiler explosion shows the danger of poorly maintained and un-inspected boilers in the garment industry in Bangladesh,” the statement said. Boilers are currently not covered under the inspection of the Accord, which stipulates that the boiler room be separated from the rest of the factory with fire-rated construction, but does not include inspection of the boilers themselves to detect explosion risks. “Fire separation alone is an insufficient measure, since, as in Monday’s disaster, the explosion of a defective boiler can be powerful enough to breach the walls of the room in which it is contained, spreading fire and/or causing structural damage,” it added. The only way to fully protect against the possibility of a boiler explosion is to ensure the integrity of the boiler, they said in the statement. They called on Accord’s Steering Committee to modify its safety standards, take necessary measures for enhancing its technical capacity immediately in this regard and inspect all boilers in factories of Accord signatory brands and retailers. “In addition to the issue of boilers, the Accord must address other safety hazards that have caused accidents, injuries and deaths in garment factories, but which are outside the scope of the Accord programme. These include defects in factory generators, gas lines and freight elevators,” they said. The Bangladesh government, apparel brands and factory owners have a responsibility to provide remedy following safety failures, the statement said. It also said they should now ensure a swift process to provide the families affected by the boiler explosion and collapse at Multifabs Ltd with all medical care necessary as well as full and fair compensation. The statement added that the rights groups are still in the process of confirming which brands sourced from the factory. Several sources show that apparels for Accord members Aldi Nord and Süd, Dansk Supermarket, Lindex, Metro AG, Stockmann and Takko were produced at the factory, it said. Other brands listed on the factory website as currently or recently having orders at the factory are Gorfactory, HFG, Hubermasche, Littlewoods, Mitsubishi Corporation Fashion, Newbody, Rex Holm, ScanWear, Seppälä, and Zolla. Multifabs Ltd also produced garments for at least one signatory brand of the Alliance that also does not cover the safety of boilers. The factory appears on the Alliance website and whichever Alliance brand used the factory in the past should identify itself and contribute to compensation and medical care for the victims at Multifabs Ltd, they demanded in the statement.
