Excessive employer influence is weakening worker safety protections in Bangladesh’s garment industry

The programme, a binding agreement between brands and unions, known as the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry, which is credited for saving the lives of thousands of garment workers, does not allow factory owners governance power, but in 2020 its Bangladesh operation was turned over to an entity in that country known as the Ready-Made-Garment Sustainability Council (RSC) in which employers have such power and the role of worker representatives is diminished. The NGOs – Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC), Worker Rights Consortium (WRC), and Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN), which are Witness Signatories to the International Accord – call for restructuring the RSC governance to eliminate employer influence over the inspection process and maintain the integrity of the safety programme.

The research presented in the memorandum finds that strong employer influence has resulted in: 1) the weakening of the programme’s mechanism used to enforce factory owners’ safety obligations, 2) the continuation of exports, including to Accord brand signatories, from factories terminated from the programme for failing to make mandated safety renovations, 3) delays in the implementation of a crucial programme to avert boiler explosions which have historically been a cause of injury and death for garment workers. These problems do not lie with the personnel of the RSC, but with employers abusing their power and exercising undue influence in the programme.

The RSC was created after the Accord came under attack from recalcitrant owners supported by the Sheikh Hasina government. In the context of the recent sweeping change in Bangladesh’s government, it is time to review the governance structures of the Accord programme in the country. Restructured governance can restore the RSC’s independence and allow it to do its job unimpeded: protecting the safety of garment workers and supporting the efforts of current and future governments in Bangladesh to strengthen the nation’s regulatory institutions.

As the memorandum states: “It is ultimately the responsibility of every apparel brand to ensure that the workers who make its clothes do so under safe conditions. The Accord has been extremely effective in enabling brands to fulfil that responsibility in Bangladesh, but it cannot continue to do so without reform of the RSC. We urge brands to support the necessary changes to the RSC; to honour their Accord obligations, including paying fair prices to suppliers; and to reward the resulting safety progress in Bangladesh by sustaining and expanding their production in the country.”

There is heightened international interest in binding agreements and grievance mechanisms as means for brands to abide by human rights due diligence legislation, as will also be a topic at this week’s OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment and Footwear Sector. In this context, it is important to recognise that the International Accord is still the most robust large-scale programme entailing brands' cooperation with unions to provide for vital inspections, remediations, and a complaint mechanism in the brands’ supply chains. However, we must never become complacent in the face of the need to safeguard workers’ rights, and we cannot allow standards to slip in the programme that has been a North Star to many. This is why CCC, WRC, and MSN are urging swift, critically needed changes, to the governance mechanism of the Accord’s operations in Bangladesh.

“A reset of the RSC governance structure is necessary to keep the grievance mechanism safe from any employer interference, also in light of mandatory due diligence requirements, and to ensure its alignment with the Accord’s commitment to the eventual transition to governmental regulatory oversight,” said Ineke Zeldenrust of CCC.

Read the full memorandum here.

Notes to editor:

1. The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh was established in the aftermath of the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed 1,138 garment workers. The programme has been successful in moving Bangladesh away from the frequent occurrence of mass casualties in garment factories by making over 1600 factories safer for more than two million workers in the country. In 2021, the programme was renamed the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry and it started work in Pakistan in 2023.
2. In the Ready-Made-Garment Sustainability Council (RSC), employers take up one-third of the seats of the RSC, alongside unions and brands, giving corporate interests a two-thirds majority over worker interests.