A consortium of European brands and buyers has recently terminated business relations with eight more readymade garment factories in Bangladesh as the companies failed to ensure workplace safety as per the standards of the group.With the eight, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh has so far cut business relations with 97 RMG factories on ground of safety issues.The eight factories are: Fulpur Knit and Garments Ltd, two factories of FNF Group — Arion Dresses Limited and Klarion Designs Ltd, two factories of Fashion Store Group — Fashion Store Ltd and Purnata Fashion Limited, Tean T-Shirt Fashion Ltd and two units of Rashed Group — Deshone Apparels Ltd and Rashed Exports Limited.In separate statements, the Accord said that the signatory companies of the platform terminated business relations with the factories due to their failure in implementing workplace safety measures and submitting corrective action plans.Despite notice and warning and numerous efforts by the Accord staff and Accord signatories, the factory owners continued to fail to cooperate and implement the corrective action plans approved by the Accord, the buyers’ platform said.After the Rana Plaza building collapse in April 24, 2013, that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garments workers, EU retailers formed the Accord to improve factory safety in Bangladesh.At the same time North American retailers including Walmart and Gap formed the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety undertaking a five-year plan, which set timeframes and accountability for inspections and training and workers empowerment programmes.The Alliance has so far cut business relations with 159 supplier factories due to their failure in making adequate remediation progress.Both the platforms conducted safety inspections in more than 2,300 RMG factories from where they procure products.
