NEW INTERNATIONAL ACCORD AGREEMENT FOR WORKER SAFETY
“We have a responsibility to ensure workers in our supply chain go to work in a safe and secure environment,” says Anders Holch Povlsen, BESTSELLER's CEO & Owner.
Signatories to the former Bangladesh Accord have agreed to continue legally-binding commitments to workplace safety in Bangladesh and explore expanding the programme to other countries
BESTSELLER looks forward to being a signatory to this new agreement and part of this collective effort to build a safe and sustainable ready-made garment industry.
“We have a responsibility to ensure workers in our supply chain go to work in a safe and secure environment,” says Anders Holch Povlsen, BESTSELLER's CEO & Owner. “Thanks to this new agreement, we can continue to build on the vital work from all parties involved in the original Accord, and we look forward to working with our colleagues and partners to continue towards our goal of a safe and sustainable fashion industry.”
Context
BESTSELLER signed the original Accord on 24 June 2013 and the subsequent Accord Transition agreement in 2018. As per the Accord agreement, 100% of our suppliers in Bangladesh are covered by the Accord/RSC programme. This means that all their factories are subject to regular inspections from engineers. Inspectors produce reports and Corrective Actions Plans for remediation, which BESTSELLER monitors and informs the Accord/RSC Secretariat when they have been completed. Suppliers that do not agree to Accord monitoring and training are not onboarded into our supply chain.
As mentioned in our 2020 Sustainability Report, BESTSELLER made Accord-aligned electrical and building safety assessment mandatory for all new suppliers in Pakistan. All suppliers in our supply chain are signatories to our Code of Conduct, which upholds industry best practices regarding provision of safe working environments. You can find an overview of our Code of Conduct here.
