The government has drafted a new policy to bar non-compliant sub-contracting readymade garment (RMG) factories from doing business with exporters, official sources said.
The government, after consulting local and international stakeholders, is framing the new 'sub-contracting policy 2013' with a view to ensuring a positive working environment in the sub-contracting business.
The policy will make it mandatory for the garment factories to implement compliance issues in their factories and to obtain membership certificates either from the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) or the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) to be eligible for doing sub-contracting business.
The policy also will compel the factories to ensure decent working conditions according to a check-list, approved by the government.
Besides, the sub-contracting factories will have to bring all their workers under group insurance and to pay minimum wages along with ensuring other rights to their workers.
The draft policy also said a nine-member monitoring committee, headed by the Director General (Textiles Cell) of the Export Promotion Bureau would be formed to monitor and evaluate activities of sub-contracting factories' activities.
"We have prepared a draft of a sub-contracting policy to ensure accountability of these factories creating a decent working condition there," a high official of the Ministry of Commerce told the FE Thursday.
"If every thing goes smoothly, we are hopeful of finalising the policy shortly," he added.
However, though industry leaders and workers' association leaders have hailed the move, sub-contracting factory owners have expressed their concern over the future of their factories after finalisation of the policy.
Sub-contractors said upgrading everything will not be possible for most of the sub-contracting factories as the firms are being operated in rented and unhygienic houses.
"If the government, labour leaders, big players and their overseas buyers remain strict on compliance issues toward sub-contracting firms, hundreds of such firms would face closure and thousands of their workers would lose jobs," Imrul Kabir, managing partner of the Pinky Fashion said.
"It is not possible for us to maintain one hundred per cent compliance in our factories. But we are trying to ensure all possible facilities like group insurance, fire safety and emergency exit in my factory," Ahmed Ali, managing director of a BGMEA member factory told the FE.
Mr Ali also said taking clearance from the government agencies is very tough as most of the building owners do not maintain proper design and other necessary documents while building their houses.
"Ensuring decent working conditions and implementation of other workers' rights in all the garment factories have emerged as a burning issue of the industry. So we can not exclude sub-contracting factories from the bindings," President of the BGMEA Md Atiqul Islam told the FE.
"We are actively thinking of giving necessary time to the sub-contractors so that they can upgrade their factories to compliant ones," the BGMEA President informed.
Meanwhile, big garment owners take direct manufacturing orders from buyers and, in many cases, they assign their tasks to third party houses to make timely shipments.
The main buyers would usually overlook third-party manufacturing, but this has now emerged as one of the key thorny issues following frequent disasters in garment factories.
The sub-contracting factories randomly engage child labour in production and other 'safety devices' like fire safety, exit facilities and their timely payments are also rarely maintained.
However, to become compliant, a factory has to acquire at least five certificates like structural design of the building with soil test report, fire safety, group insurance and inter-bond approval both from government and non-government agencies. But most of the sub-contracting factories have no such certifications except trade licence.
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