Economic Reporter :
Following the dissolution of The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a new organization, NIRAPON, is working to maintain safety standard in Bangladesh garment and textile sectors. It’s calling a new, ‘light-touch’ approach.
With the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety winding down its operations at the end of 2018, several former Alliance members and other brands committed to sustaining the culture of factory safety in Bangladesh launched Nirapon, a locally managed organization tasked with overseeing the ongoing safety, training and helpline efforts of the factories from which Nirapon members source.
Nirapon will monitor the factories from which its member brands source to verify that they will (1)continue to meet the National Action Plan harmonized standards for physical safety (structural, fire, and electrical); (2) have implemented standardized training programs focused on worker safety; and (3) continue to make the helpline service, Amader Kotha, available to their factory workers.
It will serve as a single point of contact between its members and the factories on these issues and will also focus on building local capacity to manage fire and building safety to sustain the investments in worker safety that have been made to date.
Nirapon is not a regulatory agency, but a member organization tasked with serving as a single point of contact between its member brands and factories on factory safety issues. Nirapon will have no authority to suspend factories, instead, leaving sourcing decisions to each of its members.
“Following Rana Plaza, Bangladesh has made tremendous progress towards building a safer RMG industry” said Moushumi Khan, Chief Executive Officer of Nirapon. “Now, moving forward, Nirapon is poised to drive efficiencies and help maintain a critical focus on the rights of workers to a safe workplace.”
With the Alliance no longer in place, Nirapon is a welcome step forward towards greater worker safety in the Bangladesh industry. It will feature worker helplines, structural, fire, and electrical safety audits in participating factories that will be monitored by local engineers – who will then report back to participating brands. Although we understand that Nirapon will not suspend factories in the same way as the Accord and former Alliance. It is not intended to be a regulatory body.
Many of the previous members of the Alliance have already signed up to the initiative such as VF Corporation, Target, JC Penney, Kohls , Walmart, and others, although not all those previous signatories are yet on board such as Kate Spade, L.L. Bean, Sears and Fruit of the Loom. A significant bonus appears to be the addition of Abercrombie & Fitch.
The success of Nirapon will inevitably be measured by the levels of engagement it can stimulate within the industry and the rates at which improvement work is undertaken during its jurisdiction.
