305 RMG factories sued for insufficient fire safety so far

Monira Munni Official inspection teams have filed cases against 53 more readymade garment (RMG) units in September mainly for insufficient safety measures especially fire-related issues, sources said. They also asked for improvement of the conditions in more than 1,500 factories. But re-inspection in those factories had hardly been done due to absence of required manpower. 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 poor. The highest fine was Tk 5,000 but it has been increased to Tk 25,000 in the recently-amended labour law, they said adding the fine is still low. Following the two recent devastating fire incidents at Tazreen Fashions Ltd and the Smart Export Garment Ltd that took about 119 workers' lives, the Ministry of Labour and Employment formed 23 special inspection teams. There were 20 teams for Dhaka and three for Chittagong to oversee the safety-related issues especially fire and electrical ones. The two 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 with a new concern for factory building safety. The 23 teams, comprising factory and shop inspectors, started inspection of the garment manufacturing units from January 31 last to see whether they complied with the required safety standards. "From February to September 2013, a total of 305 cases were filed against garment factories after inspection," an official of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) told the FE. A total of 4,431 factories and establishments were inspected. Of these, about 80 per cent are apparel manufacturing units, the official said. During the period, 401 garment factories were inspected and cases filed against 16 in Chittagong, the official said. Another official said about 2,806 garment factories were inspected during the last eight months. Cases were filed mainly for inadequate fire safety measures though there were issues like electrical safety, number of staircases, provision of 25 per cent open rooftop and licenses. They focussed on fire safety-related issues, not the building safety as they do not have the capacity and experts. Besides, a large number of factories were not fully compliant with fire safety standards. "We are giving them a deadline to improve. If they fail to comply, the teams will take action," he added. But both the officials said re-inspection is hardly done due to shortage of manpower. When his attention was drawn to this issue, Labour Secretary Mikail Shipar agreed and said his ministry is working to recruit more inspectors. "A process is going on to upgrade the inspection department to a full-fledged directorate with a total of 730 personnel," he said. Additional 200 inspectors will be recruited by December next, he assured. Regarding punishment, he said the government has raised the penalty up to Tk 25,000, a 500 per cent increase. The main requirement is the willingness of the owners which is not found in many cases, he said. "In the Aswad composite factories where fire took place on Tuesday, a notice was sent on October 01 after finding faults in the units on September 25." "I think, it was the owner's reluctance," he added. However, the Secretary said they are working to create a database for preserving the information and to have an overall scenario of the garment industry. Echoing the Secretary, Md Mashiur Rahman, Chief Inspector of (DIFE) said his department is preserving information on the garment factories and is expected to get an overview by December after completion of the inspection.