Authorities now have started suspending production at garment factories following recommendation of North American retailers’ inspection teams after they closed production at nine units at the suggestion of EU retailers’ assessment teams. Production at three garment factories in the port city of Chittagong has recently been suspended as inspection teams of the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a group of North American retailers and brands, found structural faults in the building where the units are housed.
The factories are RSI Garments, Kent Garments and Shaha Chand Garments. Of the three, only RSI Garments was on the Alliance’s list of the factories to be inspected, sources said.
Alliance’s inspection teams have so far found overloading and structural faults in four buildings which together house five factories.
Of the five factories, RSI Garments and Jans Fabrics Ltd are in Chittagong and MAM Garments Ltd in Dhaka. The names of two other factories are yet to be disclosed.
The retailers’ group submitted its findings to a review committee comprised of representatives from the government, EU retailers’ group Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, Alliance, BUET, BGMEA and BKMEA with the recommendation that production at the factories should be immediately suspended for remediation.
Experts at the review committee visited the two buildings in Chittagong late last month.
The committee suspended production at RSI Garments due to severe structural flaws in the factory building. The two other garments factories housed in the building were also shut as the experts declared the building risky.
Earlier, the review committee had suspended production at nine garment factories as Accord’s inspection teams found structural faults in the factory buildings and recommended for immediate evacuation.
According to the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, more than 1,100 workers lost their job due to the production suspension at the nine RMG units.
Syed Ahmed, inspector general of Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, told New Age on Saturday that production at the three factories in Chittagong was suspended as per the decision of the review committee. A total of 850 workers worked at the factories, he said.
Syed said the committee suggested that Jans Fabrics Ltd should run its operation with minimised load.
‘We will visit the factory building located in Dhaka where MAM Garments is housed by this week,’ Syed, also the chairman of review committee, said.
According to sources, MAM Garments is located on the fourth and fifth floors of a six-storied rented building which also accommodates another factory from ground to third floors.
The Alliance inspection revealed that the factory building has no original design drawings or construction documents or even the soil test reports, sources said.
Alliance on Friday announced that it established a $5-million Worker Safety Fund that, among other things, will support the workers displaced by such closures with two months of pay, in partnership with factory owners.
The platform in a press release said in partnership with Brac, a non-government organisation, it started disbursing funds directly to workers displaced by the closure of factories due to safety concerns.
Salaries of more than 350 workers have been paid following factory closures, Alliance said.
After the Rana Plaza building collapse on April 24, last year which killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, North American apparel companies, retailers and brands formed Alliance and European Union retailers formed Accord to improve safety in Bangladeshi RMG factories.
Alliance has so far inspected more than 450 factories, with a target of completing inspections to all 640 factories by July.
Accord teams began inspection of around 1,600 factories in February and have inspected more than 350 factories so far.
-With New Age input
