Major Retailers Join Plan for Greater Safety in Bangladesh

By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: May 13, 2013

Three weeks after a building collapse in Bangladesh that killed more than 1,100 workers, three of the world’s largest apparel companies – the retailing giant H&M, C&A of the Netherlands, and Inditex, owner of the Zara chain — agreed on Monday to sign a far-reaching and legally binding plan that requires retailers to help finance fire safety and building improvements in the factories they use in Bangladesh.

Consumer and labor groups hailed the move by Sweden-based H&M – which is the largest purchaser of garments from Bangladesh – Inditex, based in Spain, and C&A as an important step toward improving factory safety in Bangladesh, saying it would increase pressure on other Western retailers and apparel brands to do likewise.

The factory safety agreement calls for independent, rigorous factory safety inspections with public reports and mandatory repairs and renovations underwritten by Western retailers. It also calls for retailers to stop doing business with any factory that refuses to make necessary safety improvements, and for workers and their unions to have a substantial voice in factory safety.

PVH, the parent company of Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Izod, also announced on Monday that it would join the plan, an expanded version of an earlier proposal that PVH was one of two companies to sign. The new plan lasts five years, the previous one two years.

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