Lessons learnt from the Bangladesh Accord?

The Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety

A good example of a legally binding initiative is the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (The Accord). The Accord is an industry initiative that was launched in the immediate aftermath of the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in 2013 in Bangladesh, and since then has improved the lives of millions of workers in the country.

The Rana Plaza disaster killed 1,134 people and injured at least twice as many. The five factories that were part of Rana Plaza mainly supplied European and American clothing brands. Just a few months before the collapse, the textile factories had been subject to several inspections, during which auditors failed to identify any faults or concerns.

Protecting workers’ rights and ensuring high standards

Rana Plaza highlighted the failure of voluntary corporate responsibility initiatives and caused a global uproar over exploitation, working conditions, and accountability. As a result, The Accord was initiated. To this day, The Accord remains one of the most successful international agreements. Other standards and initiatives can, and indeed must learn from it.

The success of The Accord comes above all down to the fact that it is a legally binding agreement between participating companies and trade unions. There are sanctions for non-compliance with the provisions; there is a straightforward complaints mechanism for workers and a high level of transparency on the side of the companies.

Drawing on the experience of The Accord, various key criteria for successful industry standards can be determined: measurable commitments, equal representation of employees and unions, complaints mechanisms for the workers affected, as well as conflict resolution mechanisms for member organizations, to name just a few examples.

Looking at Bangladesh, it is clear that Germany and the EU as a whole have much to learn from the country’s experience. Two key lessons are: the importance of well-designed industry standards, on the one hand, and the need to, at long last, pass an effective law, on the other.

This article was originally published in German at www.fes.de.