H&M calls for speeding up remediation

Swedish retail giant H&M yesterday expressed dissatisfaction over the progress of remediation at its Bangladeshi suppliers, while urging them to speed up the process.

So far, 62 percent of remediation has been completed, said BGMEA Vice-President Mahmud Hasan Khan Babu, who was present at a meeting with H&M officials.

“H&M officials urged suppliers to complete remediation as soon as possible. They told some suppliers to complete the process by May.” H&M is the largest buyer of Bangladesh garment, purchasing more than $5 billion of products a year from about 250 factories.

Babu said the garment makers did not ask for any financial support in yesterday's meeting.

However, some H&M suppliers have complained that the Accord engineers have set new rules for factory remediation.

The factory owners have been fixing the problems pointed out in the first round of factory inspections, but the engineers have now new problems.

Following the Rana Plaza collapse, the engineers of Accord, a platform of largely European retailers, recommended corrective action plans to improve structural, fire and electrical safety in 1,600 factories.

Meanwhile, H&M has been subjected to a deluge of criticism from customers for sourcing garments at cheap prices following the Rana Plaza collapse, even though it did not source from the factories housed in the ill-fated building.

Subsequently, the Swedish retail giant now plans to introduce the “fair wage method” in all of its sourcing factories by 2018 and hold dialogues between the employers and the employees to settle wage disputes, the company said in a statement a few months ago.

“The implementation of the method will contribute to sustainable pay structures, more regular wage adjustments and enhanced communication and social dialogue between the management and workers' representatives.”

H&M has more than 3,900 stores in 61 markets and buys around 80 percent of its products from Asia.