“Tofail blasts Accord”, 13 November 2018

Commerce Minister...yesterday [12 November] came down hard on the Accord for its intent to sever business ties with 532 garment factories for their alleged poor progress in remediation…

The owners of the factories have already spent Tk 5 crore to Tk 30 crore for inspection and remediation of a factory.…

The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh…is due to leave Bangladesh on November 30 after five and a half years. By then, if the 532 factories are not close to completing their remediation works they would become ineligible to supply to the Accord's over 200 signatory brands. “What progress has the Accord made...After five years they could only handover 20 out of more than 1,600 factories they have inspected so far...

The Accord...has been met with dire resistance from the government and the factory owners…The Supreme Court also said that the Accord cannot stay...

No industrial accident took place in Bangladesh over the last five years as the factory owners have already remediated as per the recommendations of the Accord engineers…Without having any professional registration and licence Bangladesh allowed the Accord to practice...

Still, 70 percent of the buyers are giving low prices for the garment product, despite improvements in quality, workplace safety and labour rights,,,[and] urged the foreign buyers to increase the prices of garment items as they spent billions of dollars on improving factory safety.

So far, the International Labour Organisation and the EU have expressed their satisfaction on the progress of inspection and remediation. If a long-term collaboration is not struck, the battle between buyers and manufacturers will continue...Brands and retailers must stop asking unrealistic and shorter delivery time. They must stop making the last-minute changes...