Alliance completes inspecting 80% factories

The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety on Thursday said that they had already inspected the safety and labour standards in 508 readymade garment factories (almost 80%) — belonging to its supply chain — out of 626 factories in Bangladesh.

Of the inspected factories, a risky factory was closed down in the port city of Chittagong while five more factories are in the review panel.

The alliance came up with the disclosure at a press conference at its Dhaka office on Thursday.

The Alliance represents a platform of 26 North American apparel brands and retailers including Gap, JC Penney, Kohl's, Target, VF Corp and Wal-Mart.

The press conference was told that a help line would be introduced for the garment workers in the next week.

The service would be launched primarily in some 50 factories and over 50 more factories would be brought under the service by the end of the year.

The alliance will also hold fire drill and train up some one lakh garment workers under a programme to avert recurrence of fire incidents in the garment factories.

The Alliance's senior advisor Ian Spaulding, managing director Mezbah Robin, advisory board member workers leader Wazedul Islam Khan, Delwar Hossain Khan and Sirajul Islam were present at the press conference.

The Alliance was formed to promote labour rights and workplace safety in Bangladesh’s innumerable garment factories after the devastating Rana Plaza collapse that claimed over 1,100 lives.

The Alliance has been working on enhancing fire and structural safety in the country's 700 garment factories to prevent any repeat of Rana Plaza collapse.