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Yet Rana Plaza proved a turning point. The global outragefollowing the disaster led the Bangladeshi government toannounce a raft of changes to its labour laws, includingeasing restrictions on workers forming trade unions,hiring additional factory inspectors and increasing theminimum wage for garment workers by 77 per cent.At the same time, international clothing brandssourcing from Bangladesh joined with Bangladeshi andinternational trade unions, international worker solidaritymovements and NGOs to create the Bangladesh Accordon Fire and Building Safety.The Accord aims to address the serious issues with healthand safety in the garment sector through a system ofindependent safety inspections at factories, the findingsof which are made public. The Accord also protectsworkers’ rights by making companies legally responsiblefor making factories safe and protects their right torefuse dangerous work or to enter unsafe buildings.Photo: Saiful huq Omi/UN Women“The Rana Plaza disastercreated a platform forworkers to organizethemselves.”“They are happy to give a woman a job operating asewing machine, but less happy to see her become asupervisor,” says Kalpona Akter, executive director of theBangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity, who beganher working life on the garment factory floor aged 12.“Many of these women are forced to work in unsafe andunfair work environments because they have no ability tochange things,” she says.The day before Rana Plaza collapsed the building hadbeen condemned as unsafe, yet factory owners demandedthe workers return to their machines.“In Bangladesh the garment industry has never allowedworkers to raise their voices, the political focus hasalways been on the growth of the industry and keepingthe international corporations happy,” says Kalpona. “Itis this kind of power over workers’ rights that created theenvironment in which this disaster was allowed to happen.”What makes the Accord different from previous workersafety initiatives is that its commitments are legallyenforceable through binding arbitration backed upby the courts of the home countries of the companiessigned up to The Accord.It also breaks new ground by putting workers at the centreof health and safety reform of the garment industry. Theagreement is jointly governed by companies and workerrepresentatives and includes a central role for independentworker representatives in its implementation.So far more than 190 brands from over 20 countries havesigned the Accord, covering 1,500 factories employingaround 2 million workers. This year its network of 110independent engineers have carried out inspections athundreds of sites, identifying more than 80,000 safetyissues and suspending production at 17 factories.The aftermath of Rana Plaza has also created theconditions for garment workers to take advantage of thegovernment’s easing of restrictions on trade unions.“The Rana Plaza disaster created a platform for workersto organize themselves,” says Kalpona. “In the last twoyears about 200 new garment worker unions have beenregistered, where 65 per cent of the leadership and themajority of members are women. In 2014, these womenunion leaders have started collective bargaining withtheir respective factory managements, which is a positivesign that changes are starting in improving women’s