Accord, a western buyers’ platform working to improve workplace safety in Bangladesh readymade garment sector, will stay in the country for six more months as government confirmed it this week, reports UNB.
The announcement was made at a joint press conference, yesterday, organised by Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Expor-ters Association (BGMEA) and Accord at BGMEA office.
They said five years back on May 15, 2013, a group of global brands and retailers and two global unions and their national trade union affiliates signed an agreement to make garment factories in Bangladesh safe and the tenure of agreement exhausts this month.
As no local body is still formed to monitor the RMG sector and Accord’s remediation rate still remains at 85 per cent, government has formed a Transitional Monitoring Committee (TMC) to run the work of the extended six months.
BGMEA President Md. Siddiqur Rahman, while reading out the press release, said government formed a Remediation Coordination Cell (RCC) under Inspection for Factories and Establishment Department which will take over the responsibility of monitoring from Accord after being fully organized and capable.
He said the government and entrepreneurs are working jointly for making the RCC active before the end of the extended six months.
Karl Gunnar Fagerlin, member of Accord steering committee, said the TMC will start on June 1 and will run until they can achieve the full remediation.
