EPB yet to submit drafts in five months
The government’s initiative to introduce a transparent and accountable sub-contracting system in the readymade garment sector has made little headway in the last five months as the Export Promotion Bureau is yet to submit its draft proposals despite repeated reminders.
After the Tazreen Fashions fire in November 24 last year which killed 112 workers, the government, garment owners and workers signed a tripartite agreement to improve the working condition in the RMG sector.
There was an allegation that big garment factories were receiving huge orders from buyers and giving sub-contract to non-complaint factories and Tazreen Fashions Ltd was one of the non-complaint factories which was working on sub-contract for producing products for Walmart.
After the fire incident, Walmart had said that the Tazreen factory was no longer authorised to produce merchandise for them.
A supplier subcontracted work to the factory without authorisation and in direct violation of Walmart’s policies, it had said.
Under the national tripartite plan of action, the labour ministry and the commerce ministry on April 5 decided to introduce a transparent and accountable sub-contracting system to ensure safe and secured sub-contracting environment.
As per the plan, the commerce ministry sat with the representatives of the government, garment owners and workers and directed Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and EPB to submit immediately draft proposals on the sub-contracting system.
Since the meeting the ministry gave remainder three times to the stakeholders on June 27 and July 10
and 30 for submitting the draft proposals.
On August 18, the commerce ministry issued another letter to the EPB asking it to submit the draft proposals quickly.
The letter mentioned that introducing a transparent and accountable sub-contracting system is a part of the tripartite plan of action.
The letter also said that the BGMEA and the BKMEA had already submitted their draft proposals to the ministry.
The issue is related with the revival of the GSP in the US market, the letter said.
‘We are late as we could not start talks with the BGMEA and the BKMEA over the issue. The draft will be submitted in the next week after holding talks with the stakeholders,’ EPB vice-chairman Shubhashish Bose told New Age.
Shubhashish said that the proposals of the BGMEA and the BKMEA should get priority in this regard and the EPB would hold discussion about the draft with them before submitting it to the commerce ministry.
BGMEA vice-president Shahidullah Azim said they proposed some guidelines on sub-contracting to ensure save and secured working environment in the garment factories.
The trade body proposed that the sub-contacting factory should be a member of the BGMEA or the BKMEA, the membership should be updated, workers of the sub-contracting factories should be covered under group insurance and payment of premium should be updated and proper inter-bond permission should be taken from the BGMEA or the BKMEA before entering in sub-contracting.
Azim said they had also given the instructions to its members after the deadly Rana Plaza collapse in Saver on April 24 in which 1,132 people, mostly garment workers, were killed.
Members of the trade body are following the instructions and a total of 142 factories took inter-bond permission from the BGMEA in last month for sub-contracting, he said.
-With New Age input
