US panel calls for RMG safety

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 23 Nov 2013, 04:30 PM
Updated : 23 Nov 2013, 04:40 PM

A US senate committee in its report has advised Bangladesh government and the garment owners’ association, BGMEA, to take immediate “tough and effective sanctions” against the country’s law-breaking factory owners who particularly engaged in ‘anti-union activity’.

The Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Robert Menendez released the report on Friday in Washington marking the one-year of the devastating Tazreen factory fire.

The report also advised quick measures in sanctioning owners who do not comply with required safety standards.

He also advised the next government to ‘act quickly’ to reform the existing legal framework, including labour laws for the Export Processing Zones, and ‘bring it into conformity’ with international labour standards.

Menendez in June chaired the hearing on Bangladesh’s labour issues and called on the US administration to suspend Bangladesh’s preferential trade status, GSP.

The report suggested the US government to set “highest standards” for Bangladesh government in implementing the action plan to reinstate the US GSP benefits that it revoked after the worst-ever building collapse in April.

The Tazreen Fashion factory fire killed 112 workers in November last year. Nearly five months later the Savar building collapse killed more than 1,100 people mostly garment workers.

After the incidents the US administration suspended Bangladesh’s GSP privilege, though readymade clothes did not enjoy the facility.

The report said “both tragedies galvanised world attention towards the plight of garment workers in Bangladesh”.

Senator Menendez, however, said the tragedies also presented a crucial opportunity to improve labour rights and empower workers.

“No consumer will want to wear clothing if it’s stained by the blood of innocent workers,” he said.

He said one year ago world “woke up to the horror caused by unsafe working conditions for Bangladesh’s garment workers”.

“We should not rest until these individuals are given the rights they deserve and the tools they need to protect themselves,” he said.

The report also said the US government should increase funding for technical assistance programmes in Bangladesh, such as those run by its AFL-CIO’s Solidarity Center, to improve workers’ capacity to organise and engage in collective bargaining.

It also advised the big buyers to launch “long-term, well-resourced programs in coordination with the International Labor Organization to educate their suppliers in Bangladesh of their expectation for compliance”.

“They should also collectively develop and implement a policy of zero-tolerance for suppliers who consistently engage in anti-union activity,” the report said.