Factory Inspection
Production at 4 risky Ctg units suspended
Authorities suspended production at four garment factories in the Chittagong port city on Saturday following the detection of ‘serious structural flaws’ in a five-storey building, which housed the factories, by European retailers’ inspection teams. At least 2,700 workers of the factories are in danger of losing their jobs because of the suspension and possible closure of the units, said industry people.
With the latest suspension of production at four units, the number of total factories that were closed temporarily rose to six as productions at two units in Dhaka had been suspended in March.
The inspection teams of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a platform of European retailers, last week recommended that six factories, including one in Chittagong, should be evacuated because of structural flaws in the building.
The experts of a review committee comprising representatives from the government, the Accord, the North American retailers’ group Alliance, BUET, BGMEA and BKMEA on Saturday visited the Chittagong factory, Mens Apparel.
They found that the building that housed Mens Apparel and three other garment units was risky and should be evacuated immediately.
The three other factories are: Day Apparel, Day Fashions and Bayazid Fashions.
The experts’ team asked the factory owners for conducting detailed engineering analysis and submit the reports to the review panel by two weeks.
Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments inspector general Syed Ahmed, who is also a member of review panel, told New Age that they found serious structural faults including cracks in the columns in the building.
‘The building is vulnerable as the structure was built deviating engineering plan,’ he said.
After getting the detailed engineering report, experts will make decision whether it will be possible to strengthen the building for running the factories, he said.
He said that about 2,700 workers were employed in the four units and owners had been asked to pay their wages and benefits as per the labour law during production suspension.
Owners have agreed with the proposal, Ahmed added.
The review panel last week visited three factories that were red-marked by EU experts’ panel.
The panel gave opinion in favour of continuing production in the factories but suggested the owners for minimising load, testing the concrete strength of columns and thickness of slabs.
The panel will visit two more units including Libas Textiles in Gazpur this week.
The Libas authorities in a statement, however, said that Accord team did not recommend for evacuation of the main building of the factory.
It said the Accord raised objection about one ‘small and old 3-storey building (for knitting and printing)’ which was under renovation.
The company said that they had appointed Shahidullah and Associated Ltd to assess and redesign of the building.
The Accord experts began inspection of around 1,600 factories in February as part the group’s move to improve Bangladesh factory standard.
Earlier, the Accord in March found faults in three garments units located in Dhaka and asked for immediate evaluation.
After the evaluation of review committee, out of three factories, one — Jeans Care Ltd — got approval to resume its operation and two units–– Softex and Fame Sweater –– were closed.
About 5,000 workers have lost their jobs due to closer of Softex and Fame Sweater.
After the Rana Plaza building collapse on April 24 last year that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, the retailers and apparel brands of EU including H&M, Marks and Spencer, Mango, Inditex and Primark formed Accord.
Accord has so far inspected structural integrity of 180 garment factories and fire and electrical safety of 224 units.
The North American Alliance also started inspection of around 500 garment factories in February this year.
-With New Age input
