The government has drafted a national inspection policy outlining a number of provisions including specifying the jurisdictions and areas of responsibilities of inspectors and authorities for assessment of factories and establishments, officials have said.
Other issues relating to the core tasks of owners, requirement of tripartite meetings among the government, owners and workers to make them aware of the inspection process, strengthening coordination among the related authorities have also been put in place in the proposed policy, they have mentioned.
The draft also contains provisions on safeguarding health and workplace safety.
The proposed inspection policy is aimed at upgrading the current traditional assessment system to an international standard.
According to the officials, the proposed policy is expected to ensure modern, effective and prevention-oriented labour inspection, occupational and workplace safety and also bring all the industrial units under a comprehensive regulatory system.
There is only an inspection manual for the readymade garment (RMG) sector while there are more than 45 other industrial sectors including jute, pharmaceuticals, ship breaking, ship-building, brick fields, chemicals, re-rolling mills, tannery and plastic manufacturers, they have pointed out.
A comprehensive inspection policy could be a safeguard for the local industrial units as it will help keep the units free from the international interference in safety inspection, people involved with the process have opined.
The Ministry of Labour and Employment has taken the move, for the first time, to frame the national inspection policy after the country's worst-ever industrial accidents like the Tazreen Fashions fire and the Rana Plaza collapse that killed at least 1,249 workers, mostly garment workers.
Recently the labour ministry formed a committee headed by the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) Inspector General to scrutinise the draft that has been prepared in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO).
"We are now fine-tuning the Bengali draft and will send it to the ministry within a couple of weeks," DIFE IG Syed Ahmed told the FE.
The ministry will finalise the draft in consultation with all stakeholders including owners and workers' representatives.
The main purpose of the policy was to carry out fruitful inspections, ensure workers' rights and develop an inspection structure to assist in implementing the laws of the land, the DIFE IG said adding the policy would reflect "our expectations as to what we exactly want from assessment."
As there is no such inspection policy, he said it was required to safeguard interests of industries and workers and also harmonise various policies related to labour, child labour, occupational and health safety.
The policy would also help establish a comprehensive database on industrial and other establishments with preservation of inspection results and other related information, he said.
Following the lack of inspection capacity to assess a large number of garment factories, different foreign firms under the umbrella of the buyers' platforms Accord and Alliance were being allowed to inspect local factories, another ministry official said.
The office of the Chief Inspector for Factories and Establishments was upgraded to a full-fledged department with an increase in manpower in this regard, he said.
He expressed hope that the policy would help ensure effective, credible, accountable and transparent labour inspection and sustainable development of the country's industrial units.
According to the draft, the DIFE would have to develop an annual inspection work strategy with identification of risky sectors and discuss harmonised preventive measures with owners and workers, the draft added.
The DIFE would also have to make public its inspection reports so that trade unions and other related trade bodies can access the information.
According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) data in 2001, the number of manufacturing units in Bangladesh stood at 242,818 (2,42,818) and the number of shops, hotels, construction companies and commercial health service centres was 2,015,117 (20,15,117). The number of workplaces increased many times over these years.
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