Cell to monitor compliance in RMG sector inactive

Naim-Ul-Karim | Published: June 21, 2008 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

A government body set up to monitor the compliance issues in the country's apparel sector has stopped functioning as none, except its chief, is available to work, a senior official said Thursday.

The government formed the body--Compliance Monitoring Cell (CMC)--under the Ministry of Commerce in 2005 following widespread unrest among readymade garment (RMG) workers in support of their demand for higher wages and better working environment.

The agitation posed a serious threat to the country's apparel sector.

The CMC is located at the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) and the director general (textile) is acting as the chief of the cell.

Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, Feroz Ahmed, recently told the FE that the ministry was aware of the manpower shortage in the CMC and was taking measures to make the Cell functional.

"There is no other official except for chief of the CMC and his office assistant," a senior Commerce Ministry official said.

Adherence to social compliances emerged as a major issue in apparel sector with the collapse of Spectrum Garment factory building in Savar in 2005 and there were lots of pressure from abroad on the industry owners as well as the government regarding the safety of workers and their welfare.

Some sector insiders warned that poor implementation of the compliance issues in the apparel units might retard the sector's growth.

The CMC in 2005 was asked to attach top priority to the monitoring of the compliance issues in line with the desire of the buyers of readymade garments (RMG).

Compliance issues include implementation of the minimum wages, payment of overtime, maternity leave, emergency exit arrangement in the event of fire incidents, festival leave and weekly holiday and annual leave. A senior official said the functioning of the CMC came to a virtual halt after one year following the expiry of the United Nations Development Programme's (UNDP) support.

Under the project, the UNDP appointed one international and two national consultants and provided some logistics for strengthening the functioning of the Cell.

"We have requested the UNDP to renew the term of its project for a further period," Mr Ahmed said.

"We are monitoring whether the affiliated members of the knitwear manufacturers' association are properly addressing the compliance issues or not," Fazlul Haque, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), said.

He added: "There should be government monitoring to avoid any untoward situation in the country's key export earning sector."

Despite some incidents of labour unrest, overall export of RMG grew over 12 per cent to 7.68 billion in the first nine months to March of the outgoing fiscal 2007-08 year.