Review committee suspends production at Fashion Linkers on BUET suggestion
The government is going to take legal action against the subcontracting garment factories which have not taken registration from the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments. ‘As part of the move, we have served notices today on three garment factories –– DK Apparels, J Alam Denim Limited and RNZ Fashions Ltd as the factories have no approval from the DIFE,’ Syed Ahmed, inspector general of the DIFE, told New Age on Monday.
The factories are not also members of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association or Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, he said.
The DIFE will take legal action against the companies if they fail to get registered with the DIFE within seven working days, he said.
The three factories along with a registered factory are housed in a faulty building located at Malibagh in the capital.
A government-set review committee suspended production at the registered factory Fashion Linkers Limited due to the structural faults in the factory building.
Earlier, inspection teams of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology found safety risks in the seven-storey factory building and suggested that the review committee should evacuate the building partially.
‘The review committee inspected the building on Saturday and both the building owner and factory owner have been asked to evacuate top two floors of the building as the load bearing capacity of the structure found poor,’ Syed said.
Syed, also the chairman of the review committee comprising representatives from the government, Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, BUET, BGMEA and BKMEA, said that the authorities of the factory and the building had been asked to conduct detailed engineering assessment of the structure within six weeks.
According to the DIFE, about 250 workers are working at Fashion Linkers Limited and the factory does not export directly but engaged in subcontracting.
This was the first case where the review committee suspended production following suggestion from the BUET inspection teams.
Earlier the BUET teams had found severe structural faults in two factory buildings but the teams did not require sending the report to the review committee as the factory owners shut down their units before any such step.
The BUET teams under a joint initiative of the government and the International Labour Organisation are assessing the fire and electrical safety and structural integrity in the country’s readymade garment factories that are not exporting directly but doing subcontracting.
The BUET teams have already inspected more than 420 garment factories since November last year.
After the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, in April last year, the government in association with the ILO announced a inspection programme for about 1,500 garment factories which are not on the inspection lists of the global retailers’ groups Alliance and Accord.
-With New Age input
