A substantial number of garment manufacturing units in Bangladesh, both new and old, have shown interest to become members of RMG Sustainability Council or RSC.
Media reports maintained this adding, more and more factories are now keen on becoming members of RSC as the audit standard of this tripartite platform is very high —RSC was assigned to monitor the progress in the introduction of safety measures at more than 1,700 garment factories in Bangladesh which had been inspected and remediated by Accord — even as primarily around 39 garment factories have, reportedly, showed interest to join RSC.
However, evaluating their safety standards by any neutral platform, which is an RSC membership eligibility criterion, was yet to be done.
It may be mentioned here, comprising 200 European clothing brands and retailers, the Accord is an independent agreement designed to make all garment factories in Bangladesh safe workplaces.
However, many new factories have been formed after the Accord wound up Bangladesh operations in May 2020 while there were also garment units which did not get Accord certification as they failed to meet its standards.
“…some factories which could not maintain the Accord’s standards but are now doing business. They have either shifted to new buildings or improved their safety standards but have been certified neither by the Accord nor the RSC,” reportedly, maintained BGMEA President Faruque Hassan, adding, “We also want the inclusion of the garment factories in the RSC so that the safety standard of all garment factories is improved.”
