Fresh move to increase penalty for non-compliant RMG units

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Monira Munni The government has initiated a fresh move to increase penalty for non-compliant apparel (RMG) factories in line with the trade, labour, fire and building construction laws and rules to ensure workplace safety, and workers' welfare, officials involved with the process said. The move has been undertaken as part of a series of official steps toward revival of the the generalised system of preferences (GSP) facility in the US market, they added. Under the move, a technical committee, headed by joint secretary of the commerce ministry Atiqur Rahman, was formed on August 5 last. A GSP review meeting on the steps taken and the steps on the cards, chaired by the commerce minister on that day, formed the technical committee asking it to give its recommendations in this regard within 15 days. The committee was to identify the obstacles that hindered the implementation of the existing laws and rules, a senior commerce ministry official told the FE. It would also recommend how to ensure legal actions in line with the existing laws and rules, he added. "The committee members sat on October 2, but were yet to prepare their suggestions," he said adding the members would sit again by the end of this month. The committee is also scrutinising the existing laws, another official said adding there are provisions of penalty and imprisonment for violation of the labour law, while the recently amended labour law increased the degree of punishment. Licence suspension or cancellation provision is there in the 'fire safety law-2003', punishment for law violations in accordance with the various provisions of the building construction law-1952, cancellation of import, export certificates as per 'the importers, exporters and indenters (registration) order-1981' are there. Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) can cancel the utilisation declaration certificates for violation of labour rights and workers' safety rule, the official said adding: "We are scrutinising all the issues and will submit our recommendations in line with the existing laws." Earlier, inspectors who visited ready-made garment (RMG) factories to oversee the fire and other safety related measures also stressed the need for raising the degree of penalty and punishment, saying many of the factory owners pay little attention to their recommendations prepared to ensure and improve workplace safety mainly due to light penalties. They also said the cases filed against the units have yielded no positive results as non-compliant factory owners have gone scot-free. At the same time, the provision of punishment is too poor. The highest fine for the non-compliant units had been Tk 5,000, but it was increased to Tk 25,000 in the recently-amended labour law, they said adding the fine was still low. The recent devastating fire incidents at Tazreen Fashions Ltd, Smart Export Garment Ltd and Aswad Composite Mills took about 126 workers' lives, while more than 1100 were killed only in the Rana Plaza building collapse. The tragic fire incidents in quick succession drew both local and global attention, leading to an image crisis of the industry. It was further deepened by the Rana Plaza collapse prompting a fresh concern over factory-building safety.