Interview with Rob Wayss, Executive Director, Bangladesh Operations, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh by Marianne Scholte
Dhaka, 23 September 2014
The Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh has been criticized for closing readymade garment (RMG) factories in Bangladesh, failing to provide finance for necessary repairs and threatening the livelihoods of garment workers. Responding to these criticisms, Rob Wayss, the Executive Director of the Accord’s Bangladesh Operations, asserts that, rather than being a threat, the work of the Accord is a tremendous opportunity for the industry and for its workers and labor unions.
coming along?
Wayss: We just finished our initial inspections a week and a half ago. We inspected around 1100 factories, and we still have about 300 to deal with – common facilities with the Alliance. It has been a heavy schedule of inspections: we have been going non-stop for eight months.
Scholte: Of those 1100 initial inspections, how many factories
had to be shut down, and of the ones that had to be shut down, how many have
been reopened?
Wayss: We requested the government to evacuate 17 of
the buildings we inspected. Nine were immediately reopened after some aggressive
weight removal and load management measures – they had to remove stock, drain
water tanks, partially or fully evacuate floors, etc.
We had another
four where the building had to be completely evacuated and it will never
reopen. But those factory owners were able to immediately relocate all of the
workers and all the production to other facilities they have.
And then we
have four that were closed and remain closed. In two of those, the remediation,
including the remediation financing discussions, are underway and we are
hopeful that they will reopen. And then there are two tough cases where it
remains to be seen whether the factory will reopen or not. In one of these
cases, the factory owner filed a lawsuit against the Ministry of Labour and
Employment Review Panel, of which the Accord is a defendant.
Scholte: Four out of 1100 factories inspected where the
workers are presently not working. That is a relatively small number. But what
about wages for workers in the closed firms?
Wayss: We are getting a fair amount of grief on the
wage issue, but the problem has been substantially overstated. We have only a
couple cases where the workers have not been properly paid. Under Article 13 of
the Accord, the brands are required to make sure that the factory owner is
paying wages during factory closures or partial closures due to our
inspections. We are working with the brands, the owners and the labor
colleagues now to determine to what extent the Accord has been violated, and we
will work to rectify found violations.
