European buyers and retailers platform Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh has cut business relations with 10 more Bangladeshi readymade garment factories due to their failure in implementing workplace safety measures suggested by the platform. With the latest 10 factories the buyers’ platform has so far cut business relations with 143 factories that produce products for the retailers of European Union. The factories are: Tahersons Fashions Limited, Sadia Garments Ltd, Pullman Knitwear Ltd, Freedom Knitwear Ltd, Martin Knitwear Pvt Ltd, KL Fashion, Lumen Textile Mills Ltd, Motaleb Monowara Composite, Uranus Apparel ( Pvt) Ltd and Warn Knit Fashion.According to the Accord statement, out of 10 factories nine were faced business termination due to failure in implementing workplace safety measures while one was terminated due to failure to submit a corrective action plan. 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 workplace safety in Bangladesh.According to the statistics of the platform, the initiative has so far inspected more than 1600 factories and suggested remediation.Just after the formation of Accord in 2013, North American retailers, including Walmart and Gap, formed 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 inspected more than 700 factories and cut business relations with 174 supplier factories due to their failure in making adequate remediation progress.
