Kazi Zahidul Hasan :At least 218 western apparel companies have stopped buying cloths from about 103 local garment factories after they failed to initiate workplace safety codes suggested by the Accord and Alliance, industry insiders said.Among the factories, 23 were supplying apparels to European fashion brands and 80 to North American buyers and retailers which are belonging to the Accord and Alliance.Terming the decision a ‘harsh’ one, industry leaders said that the move has forced the factories to wrap up production leading to jobless hundreds of workers.The Accord and Alliance supported by European clothing brands and North American retail chains has been launching a joint effort to improve workplace safety in Bangladesh garment industries in the aftermath of the Rana Plaza factory collapse on April 24 in 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people. “It’s a worrying development when the local industry has initiated a major safety overhaul as per the suggestions from the global buyers,” Faruque Hassan, Senior Vice-President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) told The New Nation on Saturday. He said, most of the export-oriented apparel factories inspected by the inspectors from the Accord and Alliance have already initiated the task of workplace safety and rest of the factories will go with them soon.The western brands and retailers which suspended their business with the local factories are small and medium ones. Even their financial position was not sound.”Safety overhaul in their plants has huge cost involvement so that they have to be given at least six months time to complete the task,” said Faruque Hassan. He further said that if we look all the things, the decision of the western buyers seems to be unrealistic. We will sit with them immediately seeking review of their decision. According to him, the task of factory up-gradation, structural, electrical and fire safety fixes would cost hundreds of millions of dollars. When asked, the BGMEA leader said that larger factories can generally pay for those changes independently, or have access to a growing number of affordable financing arrangements backed by wealthy customers.But the smaller factories do not have access to affordable financing leaving them exposed with unfinished the task to upgrade their workplace safety.
