The signing of the new Bangladesh Accord on fire and building safety will protect workers, and improve the garment industry, according to International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC).ITCU general secretary Sharan Burrow on Friday said, “This new accord underlines the successes already achieved under the existing 2013 Accord, and will provide vital protections for workers who, while producing vast export wealth for Bangladesh, are at risk of workplace injury and death.”On 29 June, IndustriALL Global Union and UNI Global Union, together with representatives from C&A and LC Waikiki, announced the new agreement in Paris.ITUC general secretary, regretted that local factory owners are putting pressure on the government to turn back the clock to the days of Rana Plaza.Sharan Burrow urged the government to give its full support to the tens of thousands of workers who produce that wealth, by backing the new accord.”ITUC mentioned Bangladesh’s garment industry suffered massive reputational damage over the 2013 Rana Plaza factory building collapse that killed 1,100 workers.The new accord will come into effect at the expiry of the current Bangladesh Accord in May 2018.It includes enhanced protections for workers displaced due to accord requirements and recognises the importance that freedom of association plays in improving conditions.The magnitude of the garment industry safety problem in Bangladesh was underlined by the tragic deaths of 11 workers and injury to more than 50 others in a 3 July boiler explosion near the capital Dhaka.Trade union signatories to the Accord are demanding that its scope be extended to cover boilers as well as the existing check-list, to avoid further such incidents
