Compliance and factory audits in Bangladesh

Your order goes to a factory chosen for its audits first and its price second, named to you in writing, with the reports in your hands before production starts. How we check them, what to read beyond the grade, and the laws behind your buyers’ questions.

Ask about audited factories

Factory: Named in writing before production
Documents: Audit reports, certificates and licences, before production starts
Social audits: amfori BSCI, WRAP, Sedex SMETA, SA8000 and others
Building safety: Checked on the public International Accord factory list
Subcontracting: Only to sites you approve in writing
Cotton origin: Yarn and fabric records kept with the order

Three things buyers mean by compliance

When a buyer asks whether an order is compliant, they usually mean three different things at once, and each is proved in a different way. The factory: that the site making the goods treats its workers lawfully and is structurally safe, proved by audits and inspections. The product: that the garment meets the labelling, chemical and safety rules of your market, proved by testing and correct labels. And the supply chain: that nothing upstream, including the cotton, involved forced or child labour, proved by records.

This page covers the first and the third. Product rules differ by country and are set out on our market pages, with the tests each one needs; how garments are inspected is on our quality control page.

How we match your order to a compliant factory

We do not own factories, so our job is to choose the right one for each order and prove it. The order of the steps matters: the factory is chosen for its audits first and its price second, never the other way round.

Start from your requirements: your code of conduct, or your retailer’s supplier manual, and the audits it accepts
Shortlist only factories holding those audits, current on the day we check, for the product you are making
Check each audit ID or certificate number with the body that issued it, not only the copy the factory sends
Check building-safety status on the International Accord’s public factory list where the factory is covered
Name the factory, with its address, in writing before production starts
Send you the audit reports, certificates and licences before production starts

The factory audits buyers ask for most, how long each lasts, and how to check it yourself. Detail for all of them is on the certifications page.
Audit	How long it lasts	How to verify it
amfori BSCI	Usually every 12 months. Factories rated A or B can wait up to 24 months.	Ask for the amfori audit ID. amfori members can open the full report on the amfori Sustainability Platform.
Sedex SMETA	No fixed expiry. Most buyers ask for a new audit every 12 months.	The factory shares its Sedex reference (ZS/ZC number) and audit report with your company on the Sedex platform.
WRAP	Silver certificates last 6 months, Gold 1 year, Platinum 2 years. Platinum needs three consecutive Gold years.	Search the facility name on the certified-facilities list at wrapcompliance.org.
SA8000	3-year certificate with surveillance audits every 6 to 12 months.	SAAS publishes the list of certified facilities.
SLCP verified assessment	A new verified assessment every year.	Ask the factory to share its verified assessment through the SLCP Gateway or an accredited host such as Worldly.
Better Work Bangladesh	Annual assessment cycle for enrolled factories.	Ask whether the factory is enrolled and for its latest Better Work assessment.
RMG Sustainability Council (RSC)	Initial inspection, then follow-up inspections until every finding is fixed.	Search the factory on the International Accord’s public Bangladesh factory list, which shows remediation progress.

All the certifications and audits that apply in Bangladesh

Reading an audit report, not just the grade

A grade is a summary, and summaries hide things. An amfori BSCI audit rates a factory from A to E across its performance areas; A and B are good results, while C and D require a corrective action plan and a follow-up. A Sedex SMETA audit gives no grade at all, only a list of non-compliances. In both cases the useful questions are the same: when was the audit, was it announced or semi-announced, what was found, and have the findings been closed with evidence.

Look for the findings that matter most in Bangladesh: working hours and overtime records, wage calculations against the legal minimum, fire exits and alarms, and whether a trade union or participation committee exists. A B-rated factory with an overtime finding that has been fixed and verified can be a better choice than an A-rated factory whose audit is nearly two years old.

BSCI, WRAP, SMETA or SA8000 compared

Unauthorised subcontracting: the risk audits miss

An audit certifies one building. The risk that audits cannot see is an order quietly moved to a different, unaudited site when the audited factory is full or a deadline is tight. A 2015 survey by NYU Stern’s Center for Business and Human Rights found informal subcontractors made up 32 per cent of the factories surveyed in two Dhaka sub-districts; the industry disputed parts of that research, but the risk it describes is real and it is the one your compliance team will ask about.

Our controls are practical. Your order is placed with a named factory under a written commitment that no part of it moves elsewhere without your approval. Our quality team inspects inline at that factory while your goods are being sewn, which is also how an order that has moved gets noticed. And where a process genuinely has to happen elsewhere, such as embroidery, printing or washing, the site is named to you and its documents shared like the main factory’s.

The laws behind your buyers’ questions

Most of the questions you will be asked come from a handful of laws. Few smaller brands are directly in scope, but their retailers are, and the requests flow down the chain to you and then to us. The table below shows who each law applies to and what it translates into for a supplier.

Supply-chain laws that reach clothing made in Bangladesh. Thresholds as checked on the date below; your lawyer has the final word.
Law	Who it applies to	What your buyers will ask for
UK Modern Slavery Act 2015, section 54	Organisations doing business in the UK with turnover of £36 million or more	An annual statement; from suppliers, the factory name, audits and fibre origin
Germany: Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (LkSG)	Companies in Germany with at least 1,000 employees	Risk analysis, a grievance channel and evidence that audit findings were fixed
EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, as amended in 2026	Companies with more than 5,000 employees and over €1.5 billion turnover; compliance from July 2029	Mapped supply chains and due diligence that flows down to suppliers
EU Forced Labour Regulation (EU) 2024/3015	Every product placed on the EU market, with no size threshold, from 14 December 2027	Evidence that forced labour played no part at any stage, fibre included
US Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act	Every importer into the United States	Traceable cotton origin; goods with Xinjiang inputs are presumed made with forced labour
Canada: Fighting Against Forced Labour and Child Labour in Supply Chains Act	Entities above the Act’s size thresholds	An annual report by 31 May on steps taken to reduce the risk

What each market asks for in practice is on the guides for UK, German, EU, US and Canadian brands.

Cotton traceability

Bangladesh grows very little cotton and imports most of what it spins, so where the fibre came from has to be shown with documents rather than assumed. That matters most for the United States, where goods with any input from Xinjiang are presumed to involve forced labour, and increasingly for the EU once its forced labour ban applies. We collect these records with the fabric and keep them on the order file.

Cotton origin declaration naming the country the fibre came from
Yarn and fabric purchase invoices, from mill to factory
Production records tying fabric rolls to your cutting tickets
Transaction certificates where the fabric is certified organic or recycled

What we will not claim

We hold no audits or certificates ourselves, and we will never present a factory’s certificate as ours or a certificate from one factory as covering another. An audit is a snapshot of one site on one day, so we do not describe any factory as fully compliant or risk-free. If your code of conduct requires something no suitable factory can show, we tell you before you are committed, not after.

Sources

Checked 19 September 2026. Rules and figures change, so confirm anything that affects your pricing.

Compliance and audits: common questions.

Which audit should I ask the factory for?

Ask for the one your largest customer accepts, because a second audit costs the factory time and money and rarely tells you more. European retailers most often ask for amfori BSCI, UK retailers for a Sedex SMETA report, and US retailers for WRAP; SA8000 is the most demanding and is valued by brands with a strong ethical position. Many buyers now also accept an SLCP verified assessment, which is designed to replace repeated brand audits. If you have no customer requirement yet, a recent amfori BSCI or SMETA audit with its findings closed is a sound starting point that most buyers recognise. Whatever you choose, ask for the full report, not just the certificate or grade, and check the audit ID with the body that issued it. We shortlist factories already holding the audit you need, so you are not paying for a new one.

Can I see the audit reports before I place an order?

Yes, and you should. Once we have shortlisted the factory for your product, we send the latest social audit report, its building-safety status, the relevant certificates with their numbers and the factory’s licences, before production starts. Some audit schemes share full reports only through their own platforms: amfori members can open BSCI reports on the amfori Sustainability Platform, and SMETA reports are shared through Sedex, so if your company is a member we can arrange access that way. If you are not, the factory can share the report directly, and the audit ID lets you confirm it is genuine. Read the findings and the dates, not only the grade. If anything in the report concerns you, raise it before production: that is the point at which a corrective action can still be agreed, or a different factory chosen, without delaying your order.

How do you stop my order being subcontracted?

Three ways, all in writing and on the ground. First, your order is placed with a factory named to you, with its address, before production, and our agreement with that factory says no part of the order moves to another site without your written approval. Second, our quality team inspects inline at that factory while your goods are being cut and sewn, so production that is not happening where it should be is noticed while it can still be stopped. Third, any process that genuinely happens elsewhere, such as printing, embroidery or washing, is named to you as a separate site, and its documents are shared like the main factory’s. You are also welcome to send your own auditor or a third-party inspector at any stage of production.

Do new EU and US laws affect a small brand?

Directly, often not; indirectly, almost always. The EU due diligence directive now applies only to very large companies, from July 2029, and Germany’s LkSG to firms with at least 1,000 employees there. But if you sell to retailers above those thresholds, they must ask their suppliers the same questions, so the requests arrive with you. Two laws apply regardless of size. The US Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act applies to every importer, and goods with Xinjiang inputs can be detained at the border until origin is proved. The EU Forced Labour Regulation, from 14 December 2027, will allow products made with forced labour to be banned and withdrawn whoever sells them. For a small brand the practical answer is the same: a named factory, current audits and cotton origin records, which we keep on every order file.

Need a factory your buyers’ compliance team will accept?

Send a tech pack, a sketch or a photo of a garment you like. We reply within one working day with questions or a first costing.

Start your collection

One merchandiser responsible for your order
Certificates and audit reports shared before production
AQL final inspection report before you approve shipment
NDA signed on request before you share designs