TITLE:
The Scenario of Fire Safety through Accord in Bangladeshi Garments Industry
AUTHORS:
Md. Mamun Habib, Seeratus Sabah, Diganta Debnath
KEYWORDS:
Ready Made Garment (RMG), Accord 2013, Fire Safety, Factory Inspection
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.10 No.4,
April
14,
2022
ABSTRACT: The Ready-Made Garment (RMG) sector is one of the industries that drive
the economy of Bangladesh towards growth. The risk management of this sector has
always been a major concern. Several incidents in this sector increased this
concern of several related parties. Different codes of conduct and policies
have been introduced in different times to improve the overall scenario. After
two massive fire incidents in Tazreen Fashion and building collapse of Rana
Plaza in Bangladesh, an accord program has been built to ensure the fire and
safety in 2013. The purpose of this study is to explore whether the accord has
improved fire safety condition in the Bangladeshi garments industry or not.
Therefore, the study initially focuses on looking into the existing literature
on history and risk management issues of Bangladeshi garment industry. This
study is a descriptive study, based on primary and secondary data. Primary data
has been collected through semi-structured questionnaire and in-depth
interviews from several respondents from several garment factories. The result
of this study illustrates, after the legally binding agreement of Accord 2013,
Bangladeshi garments and textile industries had started to focus on worker
safety issues. However, in order to prevent fire hazard and ensure a better workplace
for the garment workers, they have taken all the necessary steps by ensuring a
proper checklist for the fire gadgets and implementing training session for the
workers. The findings should make substantial empirical contribution to show
the real influence of the codes. However, the study was limited to only
Bangladeshi garment industry and due to Covid-19 pandemic, the accessibility to various
respondents of this industry has been restricted. Therefore, it may also affect
the sample size. Overall, the study may provide an idea about the implication
of the accord in garment factories and the result may help the policy makers to
develop/modify policies for this sector in a more effective way.