Factory Inspection
Accord, Alliance suggest some modifications of common checklist
The government, the EU Accord and the North American Alliance have identified some points that would require modification after the three parties reached almost a consensus on their respective recommendations on a common checklist for garment factory inspection.
Their observations came at a two-day (November 7-8) meeting of the technical team of the three parties in a city hotel The International Labour Organisation facilitated the meeting.
After the meeting the government hoped that they could reach full consensus after the modification.
The representatives of the government, EU Accord, North American Alliance, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology attended the meeting.
After the worst industrial incident in Rana Plaza in April 24, which killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, the retailers and apparel brands from EU and North America separately formed the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety Initiative.
Both the consortiums announced their action plans including factory inspections, training and worker empowerment and said that they would inspect factories that manufacture products for them.
The government had made decision to inspect rest of the factories under the national tripartite plan of action with assistance from the ILO and asked all the parties to work under common standards.
Readymade garment factory inspection by three parties — the European Accord, North American Alliance and National Tripartite Committee — could not be started yet as the parties could not agree on a common checklist on fire and building safety.
Earlier, the stakeholders including the government, factory owners, Accord, Alliance and the ILO in a meeting held on September 7 agreed in principle on setting common fire, electrical and building safety assessment standards.
Labour secretary Mikail Shipar told New Age that all parties reached almost a consensus on unified standards for fire and building safety inspection programme for the readymade garment industry.
‘The common checklist will be finalised shortly and the deadline of factory inspection programme may announced on Sunday or Monday,’ he said.
ILO country director Srinivas Reddy said that it was a fruitful meeting on common standards and all parties exchanged their checklists in the meeting.
Reddy said that all parties would sit with the labour secretary tomorrow as some minor modifications would be needed to finalise a unified standard for factory inspection.
‘The needed modifications will be very easy as all parties have agreed to go forward based on Bangladesh National Building Code and the country’s laws,’ he said.
Meeting sources said that the representatives of EU Accord and the North American Alliance would convey their findings to the authorities of the EU Accord and the North American Alliance and the authorities would sit with the NTC tomorrow for finalising the common standards with necessary inclusion and exclusion.
The labour secretary said that both the EU Accord and the North American Alliance agreed that a review committee would be formed under the NTC and during the inspection no factory would remain closed without clearance of the committee.
‘After the meeting with Accord and Alliance on Sunday, hopefully we will able to start factory inspection as the common standards might be finalised at the meeting,’ he said.
Recently, the Accord published a list of around 1,600 factories while the Alliance is scheduled to publish a list of around 620 apparel units for inspection. The government with the assistance of ILO will inspect the rest of the factories. The government will engage 30 expert teams of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology to do the inspection.
-With New Age input
