Retail Council of Canada Welcomes Progress on Improving Factory Safety in Bangladesh Detailed in Alliance Annual Report

TORONTO, Sept. 10, 2015 /CNW/ - Retail Council of Canada (RCC) applauds the progress to date on improving factory safety in Bangladesh highlighted in the second annual report issued today by the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety (Alliance).

A private-sector initiative uniting apparel retailers and brands, the Alliance reported on progress in its activities over the past year, including:

• Implementing and verifying remediation actions in over 500 factories to correct problems uncovered during earlier inspections.
• Partnering with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to provide nearly US$70 million in low-cost financing for factory remediation.
• Instituting effective programmes on safety training and communication systems for hundreds of thousands of factory workers and managers.

This work complements similar efforts undertaken by the other private sector initiative, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord).

Diane J. Brisebois, President and CEO, commented: "Both private-sector initiatives, the Alliance and the Accord, have clearly made significant strides over the past two years to improve the safety of workers in garment factories in Bangladesh, though we recognize that much work remains to be done.  We hope never again to see a tragedy like the 2012 Tazreen factory fire and 2013 Rana factory collapse in Bangladesh."

The Alliance report is available at www.bangladeshworkersafety.org.

RCC and its members will continue to actively work with Alliance, the Accord, and all stakeholders to ensure continued progress in addressing these important safety issues.

About Retail Council of Canada
Retail is Canada's largest employer with 2.2 million Canadians working in our industry. The sector annually generates payroll of $60 billion and $350 billion in sales (excluding vehicles and gasoline) as of 2014. Retail Council of Canada (RCC) members' represent more than two thirds of retail sales in the country. RCC is a not-for-profit industry-funded association and represents small, medium and large retail business in every community across the country. As the Voice of Canadian retailers we proudly represent more than 45,000 storefronts in all retail formats, including department, grocery, speciality, discount, independent retailers and online merchants.

SOURCE Retail Council of Canada

Devon Pool, [email protected]