Letter to garment companies to continue Bangladesh Safety Accord

Statement

19 November 2018

Letter from the Clean Clothes Campaign, FNV, CNV, India Committee of the Netherlands and SOMO to Dutch companies affiliated with the Bangladesh Accord. In this letter (Dutch only), the organisations strongly urge the companies for the continuation of the The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, which is due to expire on 6 December.

The Accord(opens in new window) is a binding contract between clothing companies, international and Bangladesh trade unions and NGOs to ensure structural improvements in the area of safety in the dangerous garment factories in Bangladesh. The agreement ran until November 30, 2018 (following a six-month extension). A new Transition Accord was then planned to take over the task so that activities could be continued from the office in Bangladesh after 30 November 2018.

Ban on Transition Accord

However, the Bangladesh Supreme Court issued a restraining order against the 2018 Transition Accord. This means that if the government of Bangladesh does not intervene, the Accord will no longer be in effect in Bangladesh after 30 November 2018. In the meantime, the agreement has been granted an extension until 6 December.

The loss of an effective inspection and improvement programme, which the Accord was the first to provide, would have major consequences for the safety of millions of garment workers. Without the Transition Accord, there is a considerable chance that the progress achieved in recent years will be lost and the situation will return to what it was before Rana Plaza collapsed.