Review meeting on garment factory safety in Dhaka today

THE second meeting of the Sustainability Compact will convene in Dhaka today, to review progress made in implementing commitments towards responsible business behaviour, better workplace safety, and labour rights in the factories.

After the twin tragedies of Tazreen Fashions fire and Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013, the government signed the ILO (International Labour Organisation) brokered Sustainability Compact with the EU in Geneva in July 2013.

Later the US also signed onto the Compact, in which the government committed to improve three important areas for business.

The three areas are respect for labour rights, structural integrity of the buildings and occupational safety and health, and responsible business conduct.

With the signing of the Compact, the country's garment sector has been going through a massive reform to improve workplace safety and workers' rights to avert further industrial accidents. 

Let us see the major reforms that have been adopted so far to meet the commitments of the Compact.

The government amended the Bangladesh Labour Laws in July 2013 to include full freedom of association and completed rules for its implementation in September last year.

Now having a Safety Committee in every factory is mandatory, while a Workers Welfare Fund has also been formed, with each export oriented garment factory providing 0.03 percent of their export value to the fund. So far, the government allowed a total of 337 new trade unions in the garment sector over the last two and a half years.

The government upgraded the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) and hired more than 250 labour inspectors for it, who have already received ILO training on different safety issues.

The government also launched a publicly accessible website on garment factories in March 2014, which already lists information on 2,500 factories out of total 3,660 that were inspected. A hotline for workers has also been established.

The engineers of the Accord and Alliance, two foreign agencies for factory inspections, have been checking the garment production units in collaboration with the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), the garment makers' platform, the government ministries and departments.

The BGMEA has also conducted some other initiatives to demonstrate its zero-tolerance on safety issues, as per commitments to the Compact.

BGMEA has been extending full support to facilitate building, fire and electrical safety inspection of active factories under the Accord, Alliance and National Action Plan (NAP), according to a statement by the BGMEA on Tuesday.

So far, a total of 3,660 active factories were inspected by the three agencies and are carrying out recommended remediation as per the Corrective Action Plan (CAP). A small survey has revealed that an average factory with 5-30 production lines needs about $500,000 to carry out recommendations.

The government also hiked the workers' salaries by 77 percent after the Rana Plaza building collapse.

On the back of said changes, an increase in offer prices by the buyers was expected, but instead apparel prices decreased by a disappointing 4.09 percent in the US and 0.83 percent in the EU between January and October 2015, the BGMEA said.

The association now also operates a dedicated cell to provide basic fire safety training, which has already trained 103,068 garment factory workers and staff. Besides, the BGMEA also implemented a crash fire safety training for 20188 mid-level managers.

To address issues related to workers rights, BGMEA runs a Labour Cell, where a retired joint director of labour looks into the reports of harassment or anti-union discrimination, the BGMEA said in the statement.

To date since 1998, the arbitration committee of the BGMEA has resolved 8,628 labour-management disputes, collecting Tk 134 million from owners and distributing the same among 36,131 workers, according to the statement.

The BGMEA also ensures its own engineers vet the structural soundness of factories before allowing new memberships, and no factory is allowed to do sub-contracting without obtaining inter-bond permission and recommendation from the association. The apex garment body also trained 1,251 workers and mid-level management staff on better industrial relations.

There is need for development partners and donor organisations to come forward with the committed funds to implement the CAPs (Corrective Action Plans), the BGMEA said.