Rmg Factory Inspection
Buyers, stakeholders meet tomorrow to find common standard
Stakeholders of the country’s apparel industry — the government, manufacturers, buyers, workers and International Labour Organisation — are going to meet tomorrow to work out a common standard for inspection of structural integrity and fire safety of the garment factories. To finalise a comprehensive standard for the inspection, the decent work programme of the ILO is organising the meeting ‘technical workshop on common standards for assessment of building, fire and electrical safety of RMG factories in Bangladesh’ at the Sonargaon Hotel in the capital.
‘The programme is aimed at setting a unified code of conduct in the light of National Action Plan to ensure effective inspection system for all parties concerned,’ labour secretary Mikail Shiper told New Age on Thursday.
He said that alongside the government officials the representatives of EU Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and North American Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety Initiative, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Fire Service and Civil Defence, RAJUK, BUET and Public Works Department will attend the meeting.
Shiper said EU Accord and North American Alliance will inspect 1,750 factories which make clothes for them, while BUET-led 30 teams the rest of the 4,000 factories currently in operation.
To make the inspection well coordinated and fruitful all of the stakeholders have come to a consensus that a comprehensive action plan is a must and the ILO will give technical assistance to work out the common standard for the inspection, he said.
‘If parties concerned follow separate inspection methods, a single factory can be inspected several times, leading to production suspension in the factory for a long time. But a unified system can ensure well-managed inspection,’ Shiper observed.
BGMEA vice-president Reaz-Bin-Mahmood said it was very much important to set a common standard for factory inspection and it would be helpful for the business.
He said, ‘Representatives of EU Accord are coming Bangladesh for the second time since its meeting with the readymade garment sector leaders on July 30.’
‘We hope significant progress would be made in the meeting as both EU and North American buyers groups will attend the programme with a common goal,’ Reaz added.
After the Rana Plaza disaster on April 24, which killed more than 1,130 people mostly garment workers, safety programmes such as the tripartite national action plan on fire and building safety integrity, the Fire and Building Safety Accord undertaken by the EU buyers, retailers and stakeholders, and the North American Alliance, came into being to improve safety standards in the Bangladesh garment factories.
-With New Age input
