UK lawmakers' RMG recommendations

An All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) from UK says Bangladesh should take lessons of the Rana Plaza disaster and take "concrete actions to improve working conditions" in the ready-made garment industry.

Or else, the APPG report says, Bangladesh may lose out on future investments in what is easily the country's fastest growing export industry, already worth nearly $ 20 billion and capable of much more.

Conservative MP Anne Main is the chairperson of the APPG and it has several lawmakers of South Asian origin in the APPG. Rushanara Ali of Bangladesh origin is among them.

Some of the salient recommendations of the APPG are as follows:

• Brands (western importers) must invest in up-skilling their supply chain by providing worker training, improving management techniques, and addressing working practises on the factory floor. The APPG observed several such successful initiatives in Bangladesh which could be shared as best practice;

• Factory owners and brands must encourage greater worker representation and participatory structures within factories to facilitate cooperative industrial relations, building upon best practices observed by the APPG;

• All stakeholders, especially brands and the Bangladesh Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, in the RMG industry share best practices and must coordinate audit efforts and health and safety standards;

• Brands must prioritise dialogue with workers, possibly as part of a robust social auditing process which includes a risk based approach and due diligence;

• Western governments must support the International Labour Organisation’s (ILO) bid for launching the Better Work Programme in Bangladesh;

• The APPG report says that the current Bangladesh government and the incoming government after the next election must establish a comprehensive and long term strategic plan to overcome the infrastructural challenges facing the RMG sector, including bottlenecks in transport and energy supply.

The APPG supports Bangladesh’s National Tripartite Action Plan on Fire and Structural Integrity (NTAB) and urges the government to ensure its objectives are met. Some of the APPG suggestions are as follows:

• Western governments are urged to use their influence to encourage the government of Bangladesh to address labour rights, minimum wage levels, legislative enforcement, and the full implementation of the NTAB;

• Bangladesh government sets up direct lines of communication with businesses and worker representatives to facilitate dialogue. An individual with direct ministerial responsibility should be set up to address concerns arising from this vital economic sector;

• Brands co-ordinate and channel their messages through an official and recognisable trade body in order to prevent communication overload as the APPG appreciates that government capacity in Bangladesh is understandably stretched;

• The Bangladesh government establishes a disaster relief and fire emergency plan, under direct ministerial responsibility with adequate designated funding;

The APPG report says that the RMG industry has been a crucial part of Bangladesh’s economic success story since the 1990s.

"It has the potential to play a leading role towards Bangladesh’s ambition to become a middle income country by 2021," the report concludes, but if it is modernised in all possible ways.