In a recent move that is likely to bring respite to many garment manufacturers, Bangladesh Government has once again decided to extend the deadline to 6 months for completing remediation works in readymade garment factories which were being inspected under the joint initiative of the Government and the International Labour Organisation (ILO).

A decision to this end was taken following a meeting with the factory owners at the office of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE). After the meeting, the Labour Ministry has decided to extend remediation deadline from 2 to 6 months for the factories.

“We have segregated factories that have acceptable causes to get extension of time for remediation from the factories which do not have such causes,” maintained Labour Secretary KM Ali after meeting authorities of 323 RMG factories in Dhaka, Narsingdi, Mymensingh, Tangail, Gazipur and Narayanganj, which were on stage 3 of escalation protocol and faced postponement of licence renewal from the department.

“The Government does not want to close down any factory but all the units will have to ensure workplace safety to run their business,” said Ali Azam, adding, “There were some other factories in which progress was on and the meeting decided to allow them 2 to 6 more months to complete remediation work.”