North American Retail Giants Help Bangladesh Garment Factories Improve Production Conditions

Recently, Wal Mart, the world's largest retail chain, and the largest clothing Under the advocacy of Gap, 17 retailers and brand leaders in North America reached an unprecedented alliance agreement, that is, to jointly raise more than 142 million dollars (including sponsorship and low interest loans) to help Bangladesh garment factories improve production conditions and ensure the safety of garment workers in the country.

Retailers participating in the Bangladesh Workers' Safety Alliance include Macy's, Nordstrom, Sears Holdings, Target, VF CORP, JC Penney and Kohl's, the US retail giant. Most of the clothing products of these companies come from more than 500 clothing factories in Bangladesh.

According to the first phase schedule of the alliance agreement, all alliance members shall submit the inspection results of Bangladesh garment factories within one year and jointly formulate safety standards within the following three months. Members of the Alliance said that the new Bangladesh workers' safety initiative was unprecedented and very historic.

The members of the Alliance have determined to create a safe working environment to ensure the safety of the factory in Bangladesh, and eliminate any hidden danger of insecurity to the factory. An independent board of directors will be responsible for the early troubleshooting, and the troubleshooting results can be shared and publicly announced by an independent organization, the Fair Factories Clearinghouse. In this way, the factories threatened by security can be identified immediately, and the suspicious information can be transmitted to the factory owners, workers and the government in a timely manner, so as to ensure that the problems can be solved quickly.

According to the agreement, the inspector will have the responsibility to immediately report any dangerous plant conditions, and even have the right to order the factory to close and evacuate workers; In each factory, the Workers Participation Committee (WPC) will also be established to facilitate forum activities for workers to improve their safety awareness and reduce excessive concerns about the workplace; An anonymous worker hotline will be established by a third party to report various emergencies through mobile phones. This plan will be implemented in November this year; In the future, the factory improvement progress report will be submitted twice a year for the record management of the progress and direction of the factory update.

With regard to the fund for plant safety construction, the members of the Alliance have committed to provide $42 million in the initiative agreement. In addition, some companies will also provide $100 million in low interest loans to help the factory owners in Bangladesh further implement safety improvement work. The allocation of this batch of funds will be based on the number of clothing companies in the country. Each factory can obtain up to 1 million dollars/year for facility upgrading and improvement, a total of 5 years. At the same time, the Alliance proposed to allocate 10% of the investment fund to resettle temporarily displaced workers due to factory maintenance or factory closure.

In order to ensure the execution of the Alliance and urge the retailer members to fulfill their commitments, a nine member supervisory board consisting of four retailers, four stakeholders (donors, etc.) and one independent member will be established.

The CEO of the alliance member said, "The safety incident in Bangladesh factory is unacceptable. We can build a relatively strong group through joint forces, which ensures the effectiveness and continuity of individual efforts and collective cooperation, and effectively curbs the occurrence of future tragedies." The top retail leader also said: "We are committed to efficient and safe construction and operation with other global retail brands, and we will also use the strength of the alliance to raise more construction funds, such as through close cooperation with government agencies around the world, to improve the country as much as possible spin Infrastructure construction of the factory. "

So far, the alliance agreement launched by the American retailer to ensure the safety of the factory in Bangladesh has been supported by more than 70 retailers and brands. Industry professionals said that with the acceleration of globalization process and the effective implementation of the "going out" strategy, the relationship between retailers and production sites is increasingly inseparable. This time, North American retailers helped improve the factory in Bangladesh, not only considering the social impact or public goodwill, but also the maximum benefits they want to achieve, It also objectively achieves mutual benefit and win-win situation.