Textile and Apparel Industries

Who is to Blame? A Qualitative Exploration of Factory Accidents

Authors: Mehnaz Fatima Monamy (West Virginia University) , Debanjan Das (University of Missouri)

Abstract

Throughout history, accidents in factories are not uncommon in the apparel sector around the world. After the Rana Plaza building collapse incident in 2013 in Bangladesh, Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a five-year agreement, was created to ensure a safe working environment for the workers in the ready-made garment (RMG) sector (Accord, 2013). Although Accord is successful in guaranteeing building safety, the ongoing fire incidents indicate that there are some loopholes in the implementation of Accord. To understand the reasons for factory accidents in Bangladesh, we used a qualitative content analysis of newspaper articles to explore the factors behind factory accidents. The in-depth analysis of the content of news articles respective to the causes of factory accidents revealed that the structural inefficiencies have been resolved and lack of electrical and fire safety are the most revealing causes of factory accidents.

Keywords: Factory Accident, ACCORD, Apparel Industry

How to Cite: Monamy, M. & Das, D. (2022) “Who is to Blame? A Qualitative Exploration of Factory Accidents”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings. 79(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.15925