A virtual dialogue, held on Sunday in the backdrop of a major industrial fire at Rupganj, heard several leading economists and industrialists expressing their deep concern over lax monitoring of the workers' safety in industries beyond the RMG.
They called for strengthening and extending the monitoring and supervision activities for ensuring workers' safety across all types of industry.
While taking part in the webinar, they sounded deeply worried about the lack of minimum safety standards particularly those operating in the informal sectors.
"The safety issue is a concern for all industries," said noted economist Professor Rehman Sobhan, Chairman of Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).
He appreciated the significant improvement in safety standards of the readymade garments manufacturing units in the country.
He was, however, critical about the poor regulatory and oversight mechanism, and urged the government to intensify its monitoring across all industries.
The CPD and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Bangladesh jointly organised the dialogue on 'Industrial Safety of the RMG Sector during the Post-Accord-Alliance Period', chaired by Syed Manzur Elahi, member of the CPD Board of Trustees and former advisor to the caretaker government.
CPD executive director Dr Fahmida Khatun, its distinguished fellow Dr Mustafizur Rahman and FES Bangladesh Office resident representative Felix Kolbitz also spoke, among other stakeholders.
The speakers pointed out that negligence towards safety responsibilities, weak maintenance of standards and lack of regular monitoring are responsible for the accidents in the different industrial sectors, including RMG.
They called on strengthening institutional capacities with maintaining transparency and accountability and better coordination among the concerned authorities for sustainable industrial safety.
Citing example of the devastating Rupganj factory fire incident, they called on extending the safety inspection and monitoring activities to the non-RMG sectors too to help ensure workplace safety.
Recognising the improvement in RMG workplace safety standard, they also stressed on continuing with the successes achieved in industrial safety standards during the post-Accord-Alliance period.
Prof Sobhan also shed light on the role of the trade unions in ensuring safety rights of workers, who are at the centre of this issue, and added that the civil society organisations could play an important role as a pressure group in the monitoring process.
Saying that workers' life 'more important', Mr Manzur Elahi, who is also the chairman of Apex Group, said the entrepreneurs will make profit but not at the cost of the workers' safety.
He laid particular emphasis on the safety and security of workers in the informal sector. The sector, he said, despite being larger than the RMG industry is totally neglected as far as the workers' safety is concerned.
There are excellent green RMG factories in the country but there are thousands of factories that do not follow the minimum safety standards, he said.
Mr Manzur Elahi said the regulations alone cannot ensure safety. Entrepreneurs will also have to play the most important role here.
He called upon all the stakeholders to deal with the problems collectively.
Presenting a report, CPD research director Dr Khondaker Golam Moazzem showed the comparison of industrial accidents in the RMG sector between Accord-Alliance Period (2015-2018) and Post-Accord-Alliance Period (2018-2021) with no major difference in total number of incidences between the two periods.
The report, however, showed that the diversified nature of 'concerning' incidences from fire to electrical and structural issues started to change during the post-Accord-Alliance period with new types of boiler and explosion of gas cylinder against majority of fire incidences in Accord-Alliance period.
Most of the accidents took place in the medium scale factories, he said, adding that some 93 per cent factories have the safety committees.
If those safety committees remain active, the accidents might be controlled, he added.
Despite significant improvement, industrial safety in the RMG sector has been passing a critical stage due to lack of proper coordination and proper monitoring and enforcement, which are likely to be the reasons behind the rising industrial accidents, Mr Moazzem said.
The post-Accord-Alliance period of safety-related activities in the RMG sector could not maintain the standards of that of the accord-alliance period, he noted.
After 2018, a number of organisational set up had been formed for industrial safety in RMG enterprises and a few are currently at different levels of implementation, including those of RMG Coordination Cell (RCC), RMG Sustainability Council (RSC) and the proposed Industrial Safety Unit (ISU).
Not all factories have been covered under those initiatives. About 22.5 per cent of the 4,000 RMG factories are still outside of the inspection purview, he noted.
Against this backdrop, the CPD-FES study examined the institutional capacity, weaknesses and challenges of RCC, RSC, Nirapon and other public entities, including Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), to monitor fire, electrical and building structures of RMG enterprises by ensuring their effectiveness, transparency and accountability.
The report suggested strengthening the monitoring and enforcement capacity of existing organisations with maintaining transparency and accountability.
It also recommended putting the overall coordination of industrial safety under 'one umbrella' to improve the institutional capacity.
Speaking at the dialogue, DIFE inspector general Md Nasir Uddin Ahmed identified shortage of workforce as one of the main reasons for not being able to properly perform the oversight function in the country's different industrial sectors.
He said a total of 89,979 RMG, non-RMG factories, shops and other establishments are registered with the DIFE while the number of non-registered factories and establishments are about 440,830.
"There are only 314 labour inspectors against 575 posts," he said.
Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Faruque Hassan said the prices of garment items have been going down every year while the cost of doing business has gone up significantly.
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) first vice-president Mohammad Hatem termed that the garment sector is the role model of safety in the world after the safety remediation prescribed by the Accord and Alliance.
Bangladesh Centre for Worker Solidarity executive director Kalpona Akter said the garment factory owners have improved the workplace safety due to the pressure from the global buyers.
But the safety level was poor at the Rupganj juice factory as there was no pressure from the buyers, she said.
ILO Bangladesh Office In-Charge George Faller said the safety culture in the garment sector improved but the safety issue needs to be seen holistically.
DIFE is an inspection body, a holistic approach is required to ensure enforcement of safety guidelines, he noted.
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