Assessment body comprising of buyers, owners, govt to be formed
International buyers of garment products on Monday expressed their dissatisfaction again over the lack of workplace safety in Bangladesh which was exposed again by the Savar tragedy and they wanted to see ‘credible action’ addressing health and safety issues of workers.
The buyers also said that the government should take lead in ensuring safe building and proposed that an assessment committee comprising of representatives of buyers, garment owners and government representatives should be formed to deal with workplace safety.
At a meeting with the leaders of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, representatives of leading global brands said that the workplace safety was not improved although the RMG makers, after the Tazreen Factory fire in November, 2012, had pledged to take steps in this regard.
‘We want some credible action this time over the health and safety issues,’ said Jenefa Jabbar, regional director of JC Penny, while speaking to New Age after the meeting.
She said that baseline survey was needed for every building that houses RMG units and electric safety should be ensured.
The BGMEA leaders met the representatives at the association office to exchange opinion after more than 400 people, mostly garment workers, had been killed in the collapse of a building that housed five garment units at Savar last week.
Representatives of Gap Inc, CNA, HNM, Levi’s, Sears, TESCO and Walmart attended the meeting, among others.
‘Buyers are very unhappy about the Savar tragedy. They have given us a bad signal due to the Savar incident following the Tazreen fire [in which 112 workers were killed],’ said BGMEA president M Atiqul Islam at a press briefing after the meeting.
He said that an assessment committee comprising of buyers, garment owners and government representatives would be formed to deal with workplace safety.
‘The committee will also decide the next course of action in the sector and compensation for the Savar victims,’ he said.
The BGMEA has decided to assess the structural designs and load bearing capacity of the buildings that house RMG units. ‘The committee will decide what kind of action could be taken in this regard,’ he said.
The BGMEA leaders urged the not to cancel orders and shipments.
Roger Hubert, vice-president of Hong-Kong based Li & Fung, one of the suppliers of RMG products to leading brands, told the meeting the decisions the committee would take should not be just in the paper, rather those should be implemented.
He told New Age that the fire safety in some factories was improved after the Tazreen fire but all the decisions taken at that time to ensure workplace safety were not implemented. He said retailers were considering their futures in Bangladesh.
He said he believed that in most countries the buyers were sitting together to consider whether or not they could still buy from Bangladesh. ‘I think that is a fact. It might sound very harsh, but that’s the reality.’
Poor safety condition in the $20 billion Bangladeshi garment industry has once again come to light after the Savar incident.
Leading brands like Britain’s Primark and Spain’s Mango have acknowledged their products were made in the block. Italy’s Benetton acknowledged having its clothes made in Rana Plaza recently, but claimed it was a ‘one-time order’, reports Agence France-Presse.
The buyers also came under pressure from their respective country for taking clothes by giving cheap rates from Bangladesh at the cost of lives of poor workers.
Former BGMEA president Abdus Salam Murshedy, who attended the meeting, told New Age that the buyers warned that another such incident like Savar would take the RMG industry into severe crisis.
Another BGMEA leader, however, said that the buyers should also take blame for the poor work condition as they were not interested in increasing product price. ‘Rather they force us to cut RMG price which lead many of the factories to go for sub-standard workplace,’ he said.
-With New Age input
