ABSTRACT
After Rana Plaza, the Accord and the Alliance emerged as two factory-safety inspection programs with the goal of preventing another workplace tragedy. While these agreements were historic in the sense that there had not been a unified effort by global brands to address safety issues, they were not a radical departure from the existing framework of corporate social responsibility programs by global brands. This chapter will focus on the opportunities and limitations of these programs, which essentially rely on private market approaches to address workplace safety and labor rights issues, in the context of neoliberal policies that seek minimal regulation by state actors and other nonbinding accountability measures. It will argue that without a labor rights focus to these programs and greater accountability measures their impact will be limited.
