Bangladesh: Alliance presents progress after 18 months

The US Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety (Alliance) has just released its latest 18-month update to highlight the corrective measures taken to ensure worker safety at the Bangladeshi garment factories used by its member companies.

"In July 2013, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety (Alliance) was formed to ensure that no garment worker would have to choose between safe working conditions and a paycheck. I am extremely proud of the efforts undertaken by the Alliance and member companies to improve the safety of RMG factories, ensuring every garment factory is inspected, every employee is trained and empowered and remediation is undertaken by every factory owner," said Ellen O. Tauscher, the Alliance's independent chair, board of directors.

The report tracks progress in the following eight sections: factory inspections and new factory approvals, remediation, supplier financing, transparency and collaboration, training in the factories, worker helpline, occupational safety and health (OSH) committees and sustainability.

All garment factories have been inspected

In terms of factory inspections, the report states that in the past 18 months, all garment factories that the Alliance members source from have been inspected, identifying 19 immediate risk cases, which led to the full closure of 5 factories, the partial closure of twelve and working with reduced load at two factories.

Alliance staff is currently working out detailed corrective action plans together with the factories to complete the remediation process. To date, about 300 such plans have been finalized. Part of this will also include verification visits to monitor the progress made by the factories. The goal is to have 10 percent of all factories undergo final inspections by July 9th, 2015 and 100 percent by July 2017.

Though supplier financing is still in its startup phase, "it represents an important breakthrough in providing access to affordable financing" for the Alliance factories according to the report. The goal is to create a credit facility of 20-35 million US dollars via 5 local banks and to encourage these banks through various incentives to extend loans to Alliance factories, especially small and medium enterprises.

Till date, more than 1,500 inspection reports have been published on the Alliance website, thus increasing transparency. Even in terms of collaboration, great strides were made in the last year due to collaboration with the Accord on Fire and Building Safety (Accord) and the National Tripartite Plan of Action.

In terms of factory training, more than 1.2 million workers have been trained under the Basic Fire Safety Training Program. But because a single fire safety training is not enough, the Alliance is in the process of developing a review course on fire safety for all factories to administer to new and existing employees. In addition, a comprehensive training program for security guards was initiated in more than 600 factories, focusing on fire safety and the unique roles and responsibilities of security guards during an emergency. This will be completed by July 2015.

The Alliance is also working together with the University of Texas-Austin and Dhaka University to ensure that the training efforts are effective. The universities will conduct an in-depth impact assessment and publish the results shortly so that future training efforts can be adjusted accordingly.

Worker helpline gets good response

A real success has been the worker helpline, called "Amader Kotha" or “Our Voice”, which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is currently accessible to over 500,000 workers in more than 300 factories; the goal is to have 100 percent of factories and workers trained on how to use it by July 2016. The helpline receives on average 3,000 calls per month and callers (who may choose to remain anonymous) address issues not only pertaining to workplace safety but also to working hours and wages.

In the next two to three years, the Alliance is planning to launch OSH committees in all factories, which will act as a formal representative structure that can raise workplace safety and health concerns with management on behalf of the workers.

Last but not least, in terms of sustainability, the Alliance has refined its five-year-plan and will implement its two-year-goals by the end of June 2015. Looking ahead, the organization will also work closely with the government of Bangladesh and other institutions to guarantee that the work of the Alliance, the Accord and the National Tripartite Plan of Action is sustainable.

Though the catalyst of the current efforts in Bangladesh was a sad one - more than 2,000 garment workers perished when the Rana Plaza building collapsed on 24th April 2013 - it triggered concerted and unprecedented worldwide efforts by all stakeholders from international buyers to garment manufacturers and specially formed organizations like the Alliance and the Accord.

Images: First Annual Report of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety