Rmg Factory Workplace Safety
Probe spots massive lapses
A government committee has found ‘massive lapses’ in most building structures and workers’ safety in the export-oriented apparel industry that was facing challenges after the deadly collapse of the eight-storey Rana Plaza at Savar, said an official.
The committee led by jute minister Abdul Latif Siddique on Thursday handed over the report to labour minister Rajiuddin Ahmed Raju, who is also head of the cabinet committee on RMG, at his office at the secretariat.
The committee made recommendations for raising safety standards and ensuring workers’ welfare in the garment sector.
‘We have prepared the report compiling recommendations of 11 sub-committees. The cabinet committee on readymade garment factories will now work on the next course of action,’ Latif Siddique told reporters.
He said the committee had also recommended reducing disparities in salary structures of the employees and workers in the RMG sector. There are 4,000 garment factories in the country that employ around four million workers, 80 per cent of them women.
The committee inspected 227 factories mostly in Dhaka and Chittagong to prepare the report on conditions of the factory buildings and working environment.
Rajiuddin declined to disclose the committee’s findings and its recommendations.
He, however, said that the government would take actions after reviewing the recommendations for improving safety standards and overall welfare of workers in the RMG sector that earns around $20 billion in foreign exchange annually.
Foreign minister Dipu Moni, commerce minister GM Quader and state minister for labour Monnujan Sufian, among others, attended the meeting of the cabinet committee.
‘The committee has made recommendations for steps to address the structural faults and other lapses relating to workplace safety. It has also suggested ensuring
workers’ welfare and their right to bargain with owners,’ GM Quader told New Age.
He said the cabinet committee on RMG would hold another meeting soon to prepare a plan of action keeping in view the recommendations.
‘The committee has not suggested closure of any factory,’ the commerce minister replied to a question.
The committee had found faults either with building designs or work environment of most factories inspected on random basis, said a member.
Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on April 29 constituted the committee to look into the safety standards in the RMG factories after the building collapse at Savar on the outskirts of Dhaka on April 24, which killed 1,132 people, mostly garment workers,
and left over 2,000 survivors maimed or grievously injured.
International communities mounted pressure on the buyers in America and Europe not to buy RMG products from Bangladesh unless the safety issues of the factories were addressed properly that prompted the authorities here to take actions against non-compliant factories.
The cabinet committee on readymade garment sector was formed in January also at the directive of the prime minister to address any crisis in the important industrial sector.
-With New Age input
