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Advisory Board Meeting Report
15 April 2015 Meeting (10:30 am – 12:30 pm)
The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord) held its fifth Advisory Board (AB)
meeting on 15 April 2015 in Dhaka. Representatives from IndustriAll RMG trade union federations
(IBC-RMG), brands, suppliers, and Bangladesh NGOs/CSOs participated as members. The ILO
Country Director served as the neutral Chair of the meeting of the Accord Advisory Board.
The Chair welcomed the Board members, made introductions, and expressed appreciation to the
Accord for acting on AB members’ suggestions and inputs. The chair offered the floor to the Accord
Executive Director (ED) to provide an update on the Accord implementation to the AB which
included:
A report back on the Accord meeting previous commitments to the AB: to publicly report
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more information on Review Panel cases (public report issued on Accord website); provide
monthly statistics report to the MoLE Inspector General (CSI has implemented since January
2015); to share practical information on Accord systems and operations with the national
Effort as part of the support and capacity building commitments of the Accord (“shadowing”
program and Accord technical participation in the various ILO organized programs with the
national Effort / MoLE); on efforts to avoid duplication of inspections of common facilities
inspected by the Alliance (the Accord is not conducting initial inspections of common
factories inspected by the Alliance but is conducting follow up support, monitoring, and
verification to ensure all findings are remediated and publicly reported).
A detailed presentation on the second batch of initial inspections of newly listed supplier
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factories; Accord CAP finalization and remediation meetings of supplier factories and lead
brands; ongoing efforts to accelerate the pace of remediation execution; Accord CSI approvals
of submitted DEAs, fire alarm and sprinkler system designs; and cases where escalation has
been required to enforce compliance. A discussion on the negative impact of continuous
hartals and blockades on the Accord remediation technical support and verification was
included.
Information on OSH complaints submitted to the Accord by workers, factory level unions,
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and union federations and the status of these investigations and resolutions. This included
discussion on cases involving alleged retaliation against complainant workers by their
employers.
Details and a status update on the OSH Committee “pilot” work of the Accord and our various
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engagement with the MoLE, BGMEA, ILO, Alliance, NPoA, and Accord Steering Committee
and Accord company and labour signatories in this next stage work of the Accord.
Information on identifying supplier factories, committee establishment and OSH committee
worker representative elections preparation and methodology, and Accord outreach and
training for general workforce and OSH committee members was provided and discussed.
On request of the AB Chair, a detailed update was provided on the Accord operations and
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delivery including information on: numbers (currently 76) and categories of permanent
Accord BGD staff; planned additional BGD offices in areas where RMG factories are
concentrated; and consultants and contractors utilized and being utilized by the Accord
including for the initial inspections.
Plans for programs in May 2015 to commemorate 2 years since the signing of the Accord,
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which include accompanied verification inspections and media events locally and
internationally, were discussed with the AB.
During feedback and discussion the following points were highlighted by Board members:
The need to intensify the work to prepare for post Spring 2018 when the Accord 5 year
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agreement ends. AB members specifically spoke on the need for the Accord to utilize the
remaining 3 years to help build the capacity of MoLE and private industry / local firms to be
able to continue the OSH work currently being done by the Accord. The Accord provided
details of our continuous support of the National Effort largely through technical and capacity
building programs led by the ILO. The ILO CD and AB Chair provided details of the work of
the ILO with the MoLE to build their regulatory capacity and to prepare for post-2018. The
AB was informed of a CSI proposal currently under consideration with the Steering
Committee for practical, technical training support which would include Accord staff
engineers and MoLE inspectors, engineers, and OSH safety regulators.
AB members suggested various Accord efforts or support to prepare for post-2018 be included in the
monthly newsletter.
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AB members commented the Accord should continue to engage particularly with the Better
Work - Bangladesh program on the OSH committee pilot work and that experiences from this
work should be shared with the MoLE.
The AB Chair discussed the importance of continued coordination of the safety initiatives
with the donor community and bi-lateral missions’ work with the GoB. This is needed to help
ensure maximum progress is made so the regulatory authorities, industry, and labour can
effectively perform their respective industry OSH mandates post-2018.
Labour AB member commented that additional efforts need to be made with workers on the
positive work of the Accord. The Accord ED informed the AB members of our continued
outreach to workers through various programs with IndustriAll BGD Council (IBC), field
resource persons (FRPs) doing worker outreach in the field, and the various resource
materials we have developed with and for use by IBC. The Accord highlighted the need for
our IndustriAll RMG federation colleagues in BGD to discuss and disseminate information,
resource materials, and other Accord information in their regular work with workers at RMG
factories.
RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE STEERING COMMITTEE:
AB members requested that the Accord in BGD and Steering Committee intensify efforts to
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ensure GoB and BGMEA-BKMEA participation in the AB and to support the execution of the
Accord.
With no other business the meeting was adjourned. Next meeting to be held in late June / early
July 2015.