"Bangladesh factory safety monitors get court extension", 19 May 2019

Global clothing brands including H&M, Primark and Tesco won a Bangladesh Supreme Court case Sunday, allowing international factory safety monitors to operate in the country which has had a string of industrial disasters...

The Supreme Court said the Accord could keep operating for 281 more working days, around 13-14 months, after it made a deal with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) lobbying group, a lawyer said...

Christie Miedema, a spokesperson from the Amsterdam-based Clean Clothes Campaign, said the group was studying the deal to understand its consequences.

But local union leader Babul Akhter said the deal gives wider powers to factory owners and was a threat to worker safety. "It will have bad consequences," he told AFP...