Garment factory checks slow

The government has said it will not be able to inspect all the readymade garment factories for building and fire safety measures before the end of this year.

The Ministry of Labour and Employment is also not sure how long it would take to finish the exercise. It blamed manpower shortage for the delay, citing advertisements in newspapers offering new appointments.

Labour and Manpower Secretary Mikail Shipar told reporters about the development after a Cabinet meeting on the garment industry on Sunday.

“It is not possible to inspect all the 4,500 garment factories within December. But we are about to start the inspection.”

He said advertisements were issued for only 37 factory Inspectors, though the ministry was supposed to hire 200.

“We are working to create the rest of the posts,” he added.

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The Secretary said Accord and Alliance – two foreign organisations - will study 1,750 of those factories, and added 30 BUET teams would begin preliminary assessment from Sept 15.

“The government will inspect the rest of the factories,” he said.

He, however, said the factories to be inspected by the foreign organisations had not yet been selected.

‘Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh’ and ‘Bangladesh Safety Alliance’ had been formed by the buyers from Europe and USA to ensure workers’ safety.

The Secretary said Accord and Alliance had been invited to a workshop which will be organised on Sept 7 with technical cooperation of the ILO.

“They’ll determine the technique of the factory inspection so that all the factories can be inspected maintaining Bangladesh standard,” he said.

Ministry officials said the ILO had prioritised conducting factory fire safety survey, strengthening inspection, offering professional health and safety training, rehabilitating the injured and applying Better Work Programme for implementation of the national programmes on labour rights.

The Cabinet was informed that 45 trade unions had been registered since Jan this year and more were in the pipeline.

The Secretary said the meeting discussed ways to protect trade union leaders from being sacked by the owners.

He said an inter-ministerial meeting held on Aug 5 with the Commerce Minister requested the leaders of apparel manufacturers and exporters to ensure that union leaders were not fired.

Factory owners were also asked to reinstate the sacked union leaders in their jobs.

Shipar said an embargo on registration of two rights organisations – Bangladesh Centre for Women Solidarity and Social Activists for the Environment – had been withdrawn.

Drives of law-enforcing agencies were on to arrest the killers of worker leader Aminul Islam.

The Dhaka district Deputy Commissioner had been given the task to withdraw cases against unionists Kalpana Akter and Babul Akhter as per a decision of the government, he added.

The Secretary said the meeting discussed progress of the government programmes undertaken for getting restored the GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) facility for Bangladeshi items in the US market.

The Secretary said a standing committee had been formed with the Commerce Secretary as its head to hasten the activities of the Cabinet committee on GSP restoration.