Workers’ fight for decent wages has been ongoing in Bangladesh, as has government repression whenever workers organize to achieve improved wages and working conditions.

In December 2016, worker protests for decent wages were met with violent crackdowns by national and industrial police forces. Despite the repression, workers have continued to mobilize and lobby industry and government for substantial increases to the country’s minimum wage.

The witness signatories to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh have released a public statement warning of problems with the transition of the Accord’s responsibilities to a new local safety inspection body.

On September 11, 2012, a fire ripped through the Ali Enterprises garment factory in Karachi, Pakistan, killing more than 250 workers, who were unable to escape the building because the exit doors were locked and windows barred. A new report released on the 7th anniversary of the fire warns that garment factories in Pakistan remain just as unsafe today as they were then.

On May 19, 2019, the Appellate Court of the Bangladesh High Court accepted a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached earlier this month between the Bangladesh Accord Steering Committee and the Bangladesh employers’ association in the ready-made garment sector, BGMEA. The MoU stipulates that the Accord will continue to operate in Bangladesh for a transition period of 281 working days, during which time brands, unions and the BGMEA will establish a new institution called the RMG Sustainability Council (RSC), which will take over the Accord’s tasks in 2020.