Labour rights groups call for expanding Accord inspections to boilers

A number of labour rights groups have called for garment factory safety body Accord to expand its inspections to cover boilers following the Multifabs explosion that killed 13.

The disaster showed the need to include boilers in safety checks, the witness signatories of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, Clean Clothes Campaign, the International Labour Rights Forum, the Worker Rights Consortium and the Maquila Solidarity Network said in a joint statement.

“The boiler explosion shows the danger of poorly maintained and uninspected boilers in the garment industry in Bangladesh.”

Boilers are currently not covered under the inspections of the Accord, which stipulates that the boiler room must be separated from the rest of the factory with fire-rated construction, but does not include inspections of the boilers themselves to detect explosion risk, according to the statement.

Fire separation alone is an insufficient measure, as the explosion of a defective boiler can be powerful enough to breach the walls of the room in which it is contained, spreading fire and causing structural damage, it said.

“The Accord safety standards, and the Accord inspection programme, must be immediately expanded to cover boilers,” they said.

Multifabs, which supplies knitted apparel to a variety of Western brands and retailers, is covered under the Accord and has been inspected by its engineers.

According to the joint statement, Multifabs also produced for at least one brand that is a member of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.

However, Alliance, a safety organisation of US and Canadian brands, told bdnews24.com that Multifabs was not a current Alliance factory and that it had been deactivated by an Alliance member in May 2015. The name of the Multifabs facility did not appear on the organisation’s June 2017 factory list.

In a separate statement, IndustriALL Global Union, which represents trade union affiliates in the Bangladeshi garment industry, echoed the demand for boiler inspections.

“This latest tragedy underlines the need for the work by the Bangladesh Accord to continue, and union signatories to the Accord will demand that it be expanded to include boiler safety as soon as possible,” it said.

It is necessary to strengthen cooperation between trade unions, the government and employers to improve fire and safety standards in Bangladesh, said IndustriALL General Secretary Valter Sanches.

Both statements also included condolences to the blast victims and their families.

[The story has been updated to correct the joint statement’s claim the Multifabs factory had been a member of Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety based on information from the organisation]