- Since the collapse, inspections at 1,600 garment factories under the Accord revealed more than 130,000 safety problems, including electrical and structural integrity issues and a lack of safe fire exits, Oldenziel said. So far, 85 percent of those issues have been resolved. Inspectors ordered the temporary evacuation of 50 factories because of serious structural concerns, he added.
As for the U.S. brands, about half of the 666 factories who are part of the alliance have made fixes in the five years since Rana Plaza, Moriarty said.
Barrett’s center found in total that about 80 percent to 90 percent of the 2,300 factories between the two groups addressed their deficiencies, from installing sprinkler systems to building stronger buildings.
Another 109 factories that did not cooperate had their contracts terminated, which also meant they could not work with any of the brands who were in the Accord, Oldenziel said. After 18 months, if the factories made required improvements, they became eligible to re-qualify for contracts.
One was the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, composed of mostly U.S. brands, such as Gap Inc., Walmart and Target. The other was the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, signed by 220 mainly European companies and trade unions. The groups set out to inspect all factories that supplied their members’ products, spotting deficiencies, evacuating those with serious structural concerns, and ending their business with the ones that did not comply with needed improvements. The Accord was a “game-changer” for how it combined transparency, giving workers a voice and enforcing safety requirements, said Aruna Kashyap, senior counsel for the women’s rights division of Human Rights Watch. It made “brands put money behind lip service.” Why would Gap or Walmart care about the welfare of workers in Bangladesh? Bangladesh had a building code and a labor ministry in 2013. What incentives did inspectors have to promote safety?In the weeks following the disaster, two coalitions representing major retailers joined forces and committed to making factories that supply them safer.