Pakistan Accord Training Engineers as it Builds Capacity
The Pakistan offshoot of the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry is ramping up with the roll-out of a capacity-building initiative to equip newly hired engineers with the know-how and skills necessary to conduct effective factory inspections and flag remediation hotspots.
The program, according to the International Accord, is currently in session in the cities of Faisalabad, Karachi and Lahore, where an inaugural cohort of 14 fire, electrical and structural engineers are undergoing nine weeks of training facilitated by engineering consultants and overseen by Pakistan Accord chief safety officer George Faller and International Accord head of operations Colm Quinn.
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The curriculum is broken down into two phases: one focusing on classroom learning and the other on on-the-job training. Engineers, the International Accord said, will be instructed on fundamental Accord principles, the Pakistan Accord Building Standard and how to capture information about key safety hazards in corrective action plans. They’ll also rack up practical experience by visiting at least 10 factories covered under the Pakistan Accord. There, they’ll learn how to conduct non-destructive testing, such as how to identify electrical hotspots through thermographic scanning.
These assessments will bring the number of factories covered under the Pakistan Accord, whose inspections and remediation work began in November, to more than 25 factories, the International Accord said. More than 420 facilities in the South Asian nation—including textile mills, which aren’t included in the Bangladesh Accord—have been identified as falling under its purview.
The Pakistan Accord, which opened last January, has 116 brand signatories to date, including nameplates such as Adidas, American Eagle Outfitters, Uniqlo and Theory parent Fast Retailing, Gap Inc., H&M Group and Zara owner Inditex. A factory becomes part of the program once a brand sourcing from it signs the Pakistan Accord and lists it as a supplier. Inspections and remediations aside, covered factories also gain access to safety training and a worker complaints mechanism.
In November, the International Accord, which succeeded the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh on Sept. 1, 2021, was renewed for another three-year term, with an automatic renewal of an additional three years. So far, 193 brands have signed up to the umbrella Accord. As of Friday, 163 of these had also backed the Bangladesh-specific program as well.
The April 2013 collapse of Rana Plaza in Bangladesh, which killed 1,134 garment workers and injured thousands more, has become fashion’s foremost cautionary tale of what happens when lax workplace regulations are further undermined by non-existent enforcement. Seven months earlier, Pakistan experienced its own reckoning after 250 garment workers perished in a fire at Ali Enterprises, whose locked emergency doors and tightly grilled windows prevented workers from hurling themselves to safety. It remains the country’s worst industrial accident, killing almost twice as many workers as the New York Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, with whom it shares many parallels, a hundred years earlier.
