With fires and industrial accidents in Pakistan’s garment factories, calls for a Pakistan Accord are growing louder. This is an extension of the “International Accord on Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry”, which Pakistani clothing industry unions have been demanding since 2018.
It is based on the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety, which was launched in 2013 and, together with the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and local initiatives, has resulted in the country’s garment industry being completely renovated in just ten years. The facts speak for themselves: there have been no major accidents in the clothing and textile industry in Bangladesh since the Accord was founded.
It now looks as if the independent, legally binding agreement will also come about in Pakistan, as the experts entrusted with the negotiations expect an agreement to be reached soon. The first clothing companies have also announced their support, above all the textile discounter Kik.
Kik commits as an initial signer
Kik CEO Patrick Zahn, who was recently on an inspection trip in Pakistan, welcomed the impending conclusion of the negotiations and announced that his company would be one of the first to sign the agreement.
“In the last five years, we have already achieved a lot in the areas of fire protection and electrical safety with our ‘Pakistan Building Safety Initiative’. With the Accord Pakistan, together with many other actors, we can ensure better standards in textile production,” Zahn commented in a statement, also pointing out its importance and necessity in relation to the new supply chain law.
Thanks to the building security initiative that KiK launched in 2017, the company already has substantial experience in Pakistan. The South Asian country is one of the most important exporters of textiles after Bangladesh. Zahn therefore calls on the factory owners, trade unions and trading companies involved in the agreement to “put aside their last self-interests shortly before the goal is reached and to bring about a quick and comprehensive solution in the interests of the thousands of employees”.
In order to emphasize his demand, Zahn declared a self-commitment for his company and signed a “Memorandum of Understanding” with the local actors on Thursday, December 8, 2022, in the presence of the German Consul General Rüdiger Lotzein.
“I welcome that we are on the verge of a breakthrough with the Accord. I appeal to everyone involved to clear the way quickly. With the planned safety training, grievance mechanisms and health committees, we can reach over a million textile workers in 700 factories,” says Zahn.
The textile and clothing industry in Pakistan employs around 4.2 million workers – a large proportion (2.2 million people) of whom manufacture clothing; 1.8 million textiles, and 200,000 are employed in the shoe and leather industries.