Health & Safety

Nirapon

A&F Co. is also committed to supporting meaningful industry-wide safety improvements, and to ensuring the welfare of our employees and our vendors around the world. Since 2013, we have undertaken extensive remediation efforts in Bangladesh in order to partner with our suppliers to assess and address key matters in their factories, including workplace safety.

From 2013 until 2018, A&F Co. was part of The Accord on Fire and Building Safety. Management immediately responded to the call for action by investing in remediation efforts, the factory achieved 100% progress rating in their fire safety improvements showing true commitment to the safety of their workers.

In continuing A&F Co.’s ongoing effort to make safety improvements in Bangladesh factories, our company joined Nirapon in 2019. Nirapon is an industry-led nonprofit organization that collaborates with global brands, retailers, manufacturers, and NGOs to create and sustain a culture of workplace safety in Bangladesh factories. There are more than 55 other members, who have enrolled more than 330 factories into the Nirapon Safety Management Program. Together we’re striving to create a positive impact for workers and factories as well as Nirapon Members.The three main areas of focus in Nirapon Safety Management Program include:

Safety Monitoring: Safety monitoring will continue to focus on structural, electrical, and fire safety. Factories are required to submit a safety management and maintenance report in 90 days interval to ensure an effective safety management system is in place. In addition, Safety Support Visits (SSV) will be conducted as a quality assurance measure of the 90-day report and serve as an independent assessment of safety management systems to help the factories continue to develop these systems in an effective and sustainable way. If there are any technical changes within a factory, including expansions or extensions, a Technical Support Visit will be completed to ensure changes adhere to relevant safety regulations and legislation.

Helpline:  Nirapon partners with Amader Kotha, an independent initiative that operates an anonymous helpline to provide workers a direct voice to report safety and other issues, and to allow managers to resolve issues. Nirapon uses helpline data as an early-warning system to identify emerging risks and inform our education content. The helpline provides workers with a simple, accessible, and safe platform to report issues and connect workers and factories with local resources and emergency services before issues escalate into major concerns. Helpline officers validate and confirm reported issues. As appropriate, the officers provide necessary support to the workers, including referrals to local resources and/or authorities, as well as notifying factory management of the issue so corrective actions may be implemented. Helpline officers offer support (guidance, resources, etc.) to support the factory to prevent reoccurrence. The helpline officers will notify relevant authorities, if necessary, as soon as possible. 

In 2023, 17 (Tier 1 and 2) factories participated in the Nirapon program covering over 54,000 Bangladesh workers. Nirapon is to notify A&F Co. of any severe labor and safety practices violations reported by workers. Such violations might include illegal compensation, freedom of association, physical or sexual abuse & harassment, forced labor and child labor, risk of fire in factory, locked emergency escape routes and exits, structural safety, etc.  

From 2020 to 2023, 8 incidents reported such as labor disputes and workplace health and safety. No incidents were associated with forced labor and child labor. A&F Co. partnered with the Nirapon and Better Work Bangladesh teams to gather facts and improvement recommendations. We then worked with the factory management to investigate the incidents’ root causes and determine corrective action plans to resolve the issues. Nirapon partners with Amader Kotha, an independent initiative that operates an anonymous helpline. 

Training: In December 2020, Nirapon announced that BRAC USA/BRAC Bangladesh has been selected as Independent Service Provider to facilitate the Nirapon Training Curriculum with a focus on safety awareness and effective safety management for CAP closed factories. This collaboration brings a training of trainers approach, with the trainers in factories receiving direct support through an e-Learning platform, real-time online, and onsite support to enhance their learning experience and provide an up-to-date safety program. The curriculum includes Fire Safety Training for all workers, Safety Committee Training for safety committee members, Security Guard Fire Safety Training for security guards and Safety Management System Training for factories’ managers. As of 2023, all of A&F Co.’s Nirapon factories have at least one certified trainer. A total of 45,000+ workers completed the Fire Safety training by the factories’ trainer. The factories’ trainers and workers will continue to refresh their knowledge with the support of BRAC.