32pc units fail to issue ID cards, appointment letters

About 32 per cent of the apparel factories, surveyed by a government organisation, have not issued appointment letters and identity cards with photographs to their workers.
The Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) under the ministry of labour has come up with the findings after its survey of a total of 653 ready-made garment (RMG) units during the period of April-June last.
Out of the surveyed units, 358 are members of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and 89 are members of
Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) while the remaining 206 are affiliated with neither of the two associations, the report has revealed.
According to the survey, 42 per cent of non- BGMEA or BKMEA member units were not issuing such letters or ID cards.
However, apparel makers claimed the percentage of the errant factories might be 15 to 17 per cent while labour leaders claimed the rate would range from 30 to 40 per cent.
In the absence of appointment letters, service books and ID cards, the workers were deprived of their lawful rights and benefits, especially in the event of any accident like the Tazreen Fashions fire and the Rana Plaza collapse, labour leaders alleged.
"About 443 surveyed factories have issued appointment letters and ID cards to their workers," the report said.
About 36 per cent of the surveyed factories did not maintain service books, it added.
However, BGMEA vice president Md Shahidullah Azim differed with the DIFE figure on appointment letters.
According to his association's monitoring report, he said, about 83 to 85 per cent units had provided appointment letters.
"Sometimes, the small categories of factories failed to issue appointment letters, mainly because many workers frequently changed their work stations," he explained.
Differing over the DIFE figure on ID cards, he said there was hardly any unit that did not issue such cards as workers of almost all factories had to punch their cards before entering their factories.
Regarding service books, he claimed it is one of the pre-requisites to be in the competitive business. Almost 85 per cent factories either maintain service books or the bio-metric system.
On the other hand, Nazma Akter, a labour leader, said till now about 30 to 40 per cent of the total garment units did not issue any appointment letters.
A worker fails to prove himself as a worker, if he does not have an appointment letter and thus gets deprived of his legal rights and other lawful benefits, when he loses his job.
The report also revealed that 88 per cent, out of the 653 units, maintained registers and attendance cards.
Thirty per cent of the factories did not provide maternity leave and allowances and the trend was higher-44 per cent-among the factories that were neither members of BGEMA nor BKMEA.
About 394 factories allowed participation committees while only 39 allowed trade unions, according to the report.
Out of the 653 factories, 86 per cent paid wages and overtime allowances regularly while 84 per cent of them followed the government-fixed wage structure, it further revealed.