Marks & Spencer, Italian fashion brand Benetton and Spanish firm Mango have become the latest global retailers to agree to sign a one-of-a-kind pact to improve safety at Bangladesh factories following the building collapse that killed more than 1,100 workers in the country last month.
The move comes after Swedish fashion chain H&M said it would sign the same five-year legally binding factory safety contract. Within hours, C&A, Tesco and Primark, and Spain’s Inditex, owner of Zara, followed.
The announcements come ahead of a deadline imposed by worker rights groups that said they would increase pressure on brands that did not sign the agreement.
The agreement requires that the companies conduct independent safety inspections, make their reports on factory conditions public and cover the costs for needed repairs.
It also calls for them to stop doing business with any factory that refuses to make safety upgrades and to allow workers and their unions to have a voice in factory safety.
The agreement comes as the working conditions of Bangladesh’s garment industry have come under increased scrutiny.
Since 2005, at least 1,800 workers have been killed in the Bangladeshi garment industry in factory fires and building collapses, according to research by the advocacy group International Labour Rights Forum.