Sign The Accord

Tell Wrangler, IKEA & Decathlon to sign!

More than 1000 garment workers in Bangladesh were killed in the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013. It wasn't a natural disaster, it was corporate greed.

260+ companies have signed the only binding safety agreement to stop it from ever happening again. But some brands will only join if forced to -- and that's where we come in.

Wrangler, IKEA and Decathlon are amongst those brands still failing to guarantee basic health and safety rights for the people who make their clothes. By not signing the safety Accord brands are willingly putting workers’ lives at risk. It’s that simple.

Wrangler, IKEA and Decathlon claim that they don’t need to sign the safety agreement, that their own audits are perfectly capable of keeping workers safe. However, we know from Rana Plaza that internal checks - that lack transparency and oversight - do not work.

By signing the Accord, Wrangler, IKEA and Decathlon would have to allow independent safety inspectors into factories in Bangladesh and Pakistan, guaranteeing basic health and safety for their workers. But brands won’t change their behaviour by themselves.

Sign the petition now and demand that Wrangler, IKEA and Decathlon protect their garment workers.

This campaign is run together with Eko. We regularly mutually update signatures, but there can be discrepancies at times in between updates.

What is the Accord?

The International Accord is the only existing binding agreement to protect garment workers by:

Informing workers and local trade unions about their rights to a safe and healthy workplace;
Mandating safety training programmes for workers;
Mandating safety protections in workplaces like fire exits;
Independent and regular inspections of factories to ensure they're safe;
Empowering workers to raise complaints about the safety of their workplace with an independent board without risking their jobs.

Brands that sign the International Accordhave to sign on to at least one of its country programmes, which currently exist in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

Find out what needs to be done to improve and expand the Accord to keep all workers safe.

Which brands did and did not sign the Accord?

We need brands to sign the Accord. The International Accord can only be successful if it is signed by as many brands as possible, and your help is needed to make that happen. While many well-known brands signed the Accord, others did not. Some decided to protect selectively and did not sign country programmes for all countries they are active in. On our brand tracker you can find the full list of brands that did and didn't sign the Accord.

What's happened since the Accord started?

In 2013 the Rana Plaza building collapsed, killing 1,138 workers. CCC's proposal for a binding safety agreement to address the deadly factories in Bangladesh had long been on the table. After the collapse, brands could no longer ignore it, and a few weeks later the Bangladesh Safety Accord was launched. In the past few years, the Accord has made factories safer for over 2.5 million workers in Bangladesh and Pakistan.

The Accord succeeds where voluntary programmes failed because it punishes brands, retailers, and factories that do not take enough action. Unions take up half of the seats in the International Accord's governance structure and can hold brands accountable. Clean Clothes Campaign is one of the four witness signatories. The International Labour Organisation functions as a neutral chair.

The Accord requires brands that have signed up to disclose their supplier factories, and ensure independent building inspections on fire, electrical and structural safety, worker rights trainings, and a review of safety standards.

The first Accord ran for five years, ending in May 2018. At that time, the Bangladeshi government and employers’ organisation stated that they no longer needed the Accord. Yet, as stressed by CCC, there was no other effective way to keep workers in Bangladesh safe. A closer look at the public data of the national inspection bodies themselves showed many inconsistencies and dangerous lapses.

Thus, many worker representatives, brands and other stakeholders joined us in our support for the continuation of the Accord. In 2018, a new Transition Accord started.

In 2019, after a court case by a disgruntled factory owner threatened the continuation of the Transition Accord, the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC) was created. The RSC is a national monitoring body in Bangladesh tasked to oversee workplace safety in the garment industry. The work of the RSC is safeguarded by the fact that brands and retailers have to sign the Accord.

Over the years, we have closely monitored the RSC with increasing concern over the influence of employers within the council, and its potential implications for factory safety.

After long-winded negotiations and sustained campaigning by CCC and others, the Accord was renewed in 2021 - as the International Accord - and was valid for two years.

This agreement allowed for the continuation of vital work in Bangladesh with full brand accountability, and for expansion to at least one country. In December 2022, it was announced the Accord would expand into Pakistan, with work starting in 2023. This was a significant achievement for vulnerable garment workers in Pakistan, where workplace safety was urgently needed.

In November 2023, a follow-up International Accord was announced. This current International Accord enabled geographical expansion of the Accord to further countries as soon as the programme is up and running in Pakistan. The International Accord, which is valid for six years, was signed by more brands than any of the previous agreements.

You can not view this content at this moment because you have selected to disable thirdparty cookies in the privacy settings.

Sign the petition to tell Wrangler, IKEA and Decathlon to sign the Accord.