Giant retailer Walmart announced Tuesday that it would conduct in-depth safety inspections of all 279 of its Bangladesh suppliers, in the wake of the building collapse that killed more than 1,100 people.
The US retailer said it would release publicly the names and inspection information on each of the factories, and meanwhile also issued a list of more than 200 factories that are blacklisted for failing to meet its standards for suppliers.
The company did not say however if it would join a protocol agreed by a number of other major buyers of clothes made in Bangladesh, the “Accord on Fire and Building Safety” endorsed by Benetton, Mango, Marks & Spencer, Inditex and H&M.
The action comes in the wake of the April 24 collapse of a nine-story building outside Dhaka housing multiple garment factories, including some which reportedly supplied Walmart, killing 1,127 in the worst disaster ever in the global textile industry.