Alliance announces progress in Bangladesh factory safety

Eighty eight per cent of factory remediation is complete, with 84 per cent of items most critical to life safety covered and 322 affiliated factories have completed all material components in their corrective action plans and are considered substantially remediated, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety (Alliance) announced recently in Dhaka.

Of the 290 Alliance factories that required structural retrofitting, 264 have fully completed the task, implying that their foundations, columns and beams can now meet the imposed load demands required of an industrial building, Alliance executive director Jim Moriarty said at a press conference.

Similarly, 118 out of 141 factories needing installation of sprinkler systems for fire safety have completed the task. Nearly all affiliated factories have now upgraded their outdated electrical systems, and nearly all have installed fire doors that provide an escape route for workers, he said.

Alliance has trained more than 1.5 million workers to identify potential safety dangers in their factories and to protect themselves in the event of an emergency. Over 27,000 security guards have also been trained in the skills necessary to protect life in the case of an emergency, he said.

For these gains to be sustained over the long-term, they must be owned and led locally in future, he added.