392 RMG factories among 1683 establishments sued

Official inspection teams have filed cases against 1683 factories and establishments, including 392 garment units, across the country for doing business without valid approval and adequate safety measures, people involved with the inspection process said.
From January to December 2013, the teams, comprising factory and shop inspectors, visited 5481 factories and other establishments located in Dhaka and Chittagong. Of them 3,707 are ready-made garment (RMG) factories.  
They also said the cases filed against the units may not yield positive results as non-compliant factory owners have gone scot-free. At the same time, the provision for punishment is poor.
The highest fine for an errant factory was Tk 5,000 but it has been increased to Tk 25,000 in the recently-amended labour law, they said adding the fine was still low.
Following the two recent devastating fire incidents at Tazreen Fashions Ltd and Smart Export Garment Ltd, which 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 in the RMG industry. It was further deepened by the Rana Plaza collapse with a new concern for factory building safety.
"We are focusing mainly on the fire safety standards, including fire prevention measures, electrical safety, number of staircases, provision of 25 per cent open rooftop and licence according to the factory laws," said Mashiur Rahman, Acting Chief Inspector of Directorate of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE).
The number of cases is comparatively higher in 2013 than in 2012 as the persons concerned have actively inspected the factories, especially after the repeated industrial disasters in the RMG sector, he added.
The teams also found absence of registration of workers, no appointment letters and identification cards with picture, no regular fire drilling, no service books and absence of other benefits like maternity leaves and obstacles to the way of movement and blocking of passage on working floors, a DIFE source said.
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 said admitting that re-inspection is hardly done in a short time due to lack of manpower.
During inspection, the teams followed a check-list that included basic information about a factory, such as registration or renewal of registration with the government authorities concerned, its main products, number of workers and officials, approval of building design, factory layout design, exit points and number of staircases, sources said.
The list also had other general information including workers' appointment, service book, regular wages, holiday, trade union and life insurance facilities.
"We are now focusing on garment factories due to frequent accidents, pressure from the buyers, and the image crisis the sector is now facing," Labour Secretary Mikail Shipar said.
Replying to a question about penalty, he said it has been increased manifold in the amended labour law.
Many a time, owners paid the penalty and had not made any repair work as recommended, but due to shortage of manpower, much time was spent for re-inspection, he said hoping that the owners would be forced to repair the faults following an increase in inspecting manpower.
The ministry has taken move to appoint additional 200 inspectors by March next to strengthen the inspection programme, he added.
The government will also take an initiative to appoint advocates for legal procedures, especially for those cases filed for serious violations, he added.
The labour ministry started a new inspection programme, targeting about 2,000 RMG factories, from November last in cooperation with BUET and ILO, which is assessing all the safety issues including fire, electrical and factory building safety.