Key new features of the International Accord include:
- broadening coverage to general health and safety, rather than only fire and building safety
- expanding the work of the International Accord to at least one other country within the first two years
- continuing the health and safety programme in Bangladesh through “strong cooperation” with the RSC
- expanding the agreement to address human rights due diligence along brands’ global supply chains
IndustriALL Global Union general secretary Valter Sanches said: “This International Accord is an important victory towards making the textile and garment industry safe and sustainable.
“The agreement maintains the legally binding provision for companies and most importantly the scope has been expanded to other countries and other provisions, encompassing general health and safety .
“Now, the textile and garment companies must show their commitment and sign the renewed International Accord. We congratulate our affiliates in the sector, especially those from Bangladesh, that have campaigned for binding commitments for health and safety in the industry.”
Workers’ rights campaigners who served as witness signatories to the Bangladesh Accord – Clean Clothes Campaign, Worker Rights Consortium, Maquila Solidarity Network, and Global Labor Justice-International Labor Rights Forum – welcomed the new agreement.
In a joint statement, they said: “The successful outcome of negotiations this summer will ensure that the sweeping safety gains the Accord has delivered in Bangladesh will be maintained and extended.
“This model, which has saved countless lives in Bangladesh, will also now be expanded to other countries where workers’ lives remain daily at risk. Every responsible apparel and textile brand – every brand that places any value on the lives of the workers who sew its clothes – will sign this new agreement.”
Ineke Zeldenrust, international co-ordinator at Clean Clothes Campaign, said: “We are happy this agreement will now become truly international and look forward to it being expanded soon to the countries where the need is highest and the demand is greatest.”
And Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, added: “Garment workers in Bangladesh used to die in the dozens and hundreds making t-shirts and sweaters for the world’s leading apparel brands. The Accord put an end to that horror. Provided enough brands sign, this new agreement will ensure it never returns.”
However, Miran Ali, vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and a director at the RSC, insisted the new agreement was not an extension of the Bangladesh Accord.
“This is an agreement between brands and trade unions outside of Bangladesh covering a new organisation, called the International Accord. It’s not a Bangladesh Accord by any means whatsoever, there’s no such thing as a Bangladesh Accord,” he told Ecotextile News.
“The RSC is, and shall remain, completely independent of any foreign interference and that is also enshrined in this agreement.
“We are confident that the RSC will continue the work that had been done by the Accord, and will do better, if anything at all. In the meantime, we welcome the initiative to extend the experience of Bangladesh in other countries.”
