Say manufacturers need more money to improve workplace safety
The country’s apparel sector leaders on Saturday criticised the global retailers for not increasing prices of the products to help the manufacturers improve workplace safety after the Rana Plaza tragedy. ‘Relocation and remediation are the two main challenges for the manufacturers to make the RMG industry safer and we need support from the government and retailers to do this,’ Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association president Md Atiqul Islam said at a news conference at the BGMEA headquarters in the city.
The BGMEA, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and Bangladesh Textile Mills Association jointly organised the news conference on the eve of first anniversary of the Rana Plaza tragedy.
Urging buyers and retailers to contribute to Rana Plaza Trust Fund, the BGMEA president said, ‘We hope the buyers and retailers will take effective initiative and extent their hands to assist workers and we do not want to see only verbal sympathy to the workers.’
He said after the worst industrial disaster a number of international and national initiatives had been taken under the supervision of global retailers and the International Labour Organisation and the BGMEA were working closely with the initiatives aimed at ensuring workplace safety in the RMG sector.
‘We are committed to ensure workplace safety in factories gradually and 13 factories housed in four shared buildings in Dhaka and Chittagong have so far been closed due to structural faults which resulted dislocation of about 11 thousand workers,’ Atiqul said.
Although the manufacturers have taken initiative to ensure workplace safety, the buyers are pulling out their business from the factories housed in shared building, which is very much inhuman, he said.
‘It would not be logical for the buyers to stop orders to the factories housed in shared building as about 15 lakh workers are now working there,’ Atiqul said.
He said the Rana Plaza disaster was a wake-up call for the garment sector and the forward march towards compliant RMG industry began on the sacrifices of 1,135 workers who lost their lives in the tragedy.
At the press conference, the garment sector leaders announced programmes to observe first anniversary of Rana Plaza tragedy on April 24.
The programme includes prayer sessions in the BGMEA, BKMEA and BTMEA offices and all apparel factories across the country at 12:01pm on the day, recitation from the Quran at the BGMEA office at 9:00am, mourning procession at 11:00am in front of the BGMEA headquarters and remembrance meeting at the BGMEA auditorium at 12:30pm on the day.
Labour secretary Mikail Shipar, former BGMEA president Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin and BKMEA vice-president Mohammed Hatem attended the news conference.
Earlier, the BGMEA launched a training programme on ‘Bangladesh Labour Law 2006 and Industrial Relations’ at the auditorium of the association.
State minister for labour Md Mujibul Haque inaugurated the programme and hoped workers and mid-level management would be responsible more through the training and productivity in the RMG sector would be increased.
The labour secretary said if the mid-level management and workers were aware of the labour law, it would be helpful to reduce industry incidents.
The BGMEA will train workers and mid-level managers in its member factories through this programme.
-With New Age input
