The safety inspection agency of the Bangladesh government has failed to eliminate high risk safety hazards in its inspected readymade garment factories and the agency is not ready to assume the responsibility of Accord-listed factories, says a study.Four global labour rights groups — Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labour Rights Forum, Maquila Solidarity Network, and Worker Rights Consortium — recently conducted the study on the basis of data on factory safety collected by the government.All the rights groups were the witness signatories to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh which was formed by the European brands and retailers following Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013, that killed more than 1,100 people mostly garment workers.‘The government’s justification for trying to end the Accord’s work depends entirely on its claim that the government is ready to assume responsibility for the 1,688 factories under the Accord’s purview, but our research shows a shocking level of unreadiness,’ it said.The report found each of the 745 factories under the government’s inspection programme have yet to eliminate high risk safety hazards, all of which were identified between three to five years ago.Citing the statistics of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment the report said as of October 2018 the remediation rate of noncompliance items in all covered CAPs was 36 per cent for structural safety, 37 per cent for electrical safety, and 31 per cent for fire safety.
