It has been quite a while the country's readymade garment (RMG) industry is under the strictest of scanners following the incidents of factory tragedies. The scanning is no less strong at home than that of the overseas, and the interest generated in the media to follow activities undertaken to improve factory conditions and labour welfare activities reflects public awareness that should have been there long back.
The RMG sector is supposed to be having the busiest time at the moment, engaged not just in manufacturing for export but in equal measure, if not more, in improving workplace conditions and addressing the rights issues in compliance with the European Union (EU) Sustainability Compact and the US Action Plan. Ever since these issues came up, there was a torrent of reports, at times conflicting one with another, on how these are to be taken up, whose key stake it would be to ensure compliance, how to monitor progress and in what form, how to address the rectifying measures and so on. In fact, given the apparently monumental nature of the work and the endless series of activities to follow, it is not unusual to be taken aback at the initial stage, finding things difficult to be coordinated in order for them to be properly directed. But after a lapse of several months, it seems, despite the reported progress, the stakeholders are yet to firm up a methodical approach.
Amongst a host of measures that are going to be in place, almost simultaneously, the major work relating to factory inspection has been in a state of disarray in the absence of unified and common guidelines to follow. There are reports of a number of government agencies sending teams to inspect roughly 5,000 factories. But lack of coordination among these agencies has not only impeded progress but also caused confusion as to the actual mandate of the inspection teams. There is also a serious concern about the methods followed. Over and above all, it is highly uncertain how long it will take for the inspection to be over. There are also conflicting reports saying that while some factories have been inspected by various agencies a number of times, others did not undergo a single inspection. A Dhaka-based foreign media correspondent who reportedly followed local inspectors touring in and around Dhaka found overlapping of inspections with no specific findings.
The major problem was due to the lack of a unified standard as regards the requirements of the EU Compact, the USTR action plan, safety initiatives of the North American Alliance and the demands of IndustriALL -- an international trade union. However, a significant convergence on the modus operandi of the stakeholders, a couple of months back, to conduct inspection on a common, unified guideline seemed to redeem a good deal of the difficulties. But lately, some problems have reportedly emerged over disagreements between the retailers and the local factory owners as regards the inspection standards which the latter consider too costly and unrealistic.
The retailers' group Accord and Alliance have conducted assessment of the factories. Implementation of the action plan in line with the assessment is feared to trigger frustration among many factory owners. At a meeting with global retailers very recently, the Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) President said that standards set by the Accord and Alliance are dissimilar from the NAP (national action plan), indicating difficulties in implementing those. Buyers, he has been quoted as saying, are now adding new requirements to the checklists triggering panic among the manufacturers.
The major issues sparking the disagreement are the use of sprinklers, fire escape, fire window and fire door as certified by the UN. Shared building, not originally designed to be used as factories, is another issue. Nearly one third of the factories are housed in shared buildings. Now, asking the factory owners to move to properly designed, independent buildings is something impracticable at this stage in the context of the country's overall RMG sector. According to the Alliance and Accord safety standards, the RMG factory buildings should have sprinklers, fire escapes, fire walls, fire windows and worker hotlines etc. As per the Bangladesh National Building Code, sprinkler in factory building is not mandatory. But the draft standards require that factory buildings of more than two floors with 22,000 square feet and above area should have sprinkler in each floor.
Understandably, the issue of sprinkler is now on the retailers' checklist due mainly to the fire incident in Tazreen Fashions. But the highly cost-intensive installation of sprinkler has scared many of the owners. While the factory owners do not intend to brush off all these requirements, they insist that the country perspective should prevail as one of the factors for reckoning before a decision is made on the best practices.
Meanwhile, an International Labour Organisation (ILO) team visited Bangladesh last week to develop detailed plan to improve workplace safety and workers' rights. Given the state of things, all one can expect is convergence of ideas among the stakeholders to work towards achievable goals.
wasiahmed.bd@hotmail.com
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