After a recent meeting on the progress of the remediation work at the readymade garment factories, the Government of Bangladesh has reportedly taken a firm decision to take legal actions against those factories that will fail to complete remediation by the stipulated time, i.e. April this year, under the national initiative inspections.
The National Initiative (NI) has been formed by the Government with support from International Labour Organization (ILO), to work on the remediation work in the country’s readymade garment sector alongside the Accord on Fire and Building Safety and Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety.
Notably, a total of 1,549 garment factories beyond the Accord and Alliance inspections had been inspected by the National Initiative, of which 531 were closed down, 69 relocated and 193 units shifted to the Accord and Alliance lists.
However, at the meeting, held recently at the Labour Ministry Office between the Ministry officials and the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), it was unanimously decided to take legal actions against the deviant factories by May 2018 and would also request Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) to not issue Utilisation Declaration against those factories, as reported.
The DIEF informed the Labour Ministry that they’re currently monitoring 745 factories through the remediation coordination cell formed in May last year. Of 745 factories, 300 were operating in own buildings while 445 were functioning business in shared or rented buildings.
Markedly, Accord, Alliance and National Initiative were established to improve and ensure workplace safety in Bangladesh’s garment industry after the Rana Plaza incident in April 2013, which killed 1,100+ people, mostly garment workers.