Bangladesh’s Transition Accord has fallen short of its goal of retaining all of the signatories from the initial agreement.
This is a Bangladesh worker safety pact and is an extension of the earlier Accord.

Unlike the original Accord, which expired on May 31, the new one is open to non-garment companies that produce home fabrics and textiles.

Abercrombie, among the companies yet to join, is reviewing the 2018 accord. Ikea has chosen to focus on its own safety audit program Iway than sign up.

Campaigners have been critical of such brands’ decision to abstain. They say Accord is the only road toward safer factories in a country in which voluntary corporate social auditing systems have in the past failed to prevent disasters like the Rana Plaza and Tazreen factory catastrophes.

Established following the deadly Rana Plaza factory disaster in 2013, Accord was a five-year agreement between brands and labor unions designed to improve garment industry safety standards.

Following the factory collapse that killed more than a thousand workers, Accord was established to inspect and remediate factories in Bangladesh. Accord is a collective scheme, which is a legally binding agreement between a great number of brands and trade unions and contains extensive enforcement mechanisms.