Alliance identifies 16 challenges for RMG sector reforms

The Alliance has identified 16 major challenges for carrying out sustainable reforms in the country's readymade garment (RMG) industry.
These include inadequate government capacity, unauthorised subcontracting business, limited presence and acceptance of trade unions and a lack of modern safety equipment
Other challenges are factory managers' poor knowledge about modern safety equipments and practices, understaffed government agencies responsible for building and fire safety, inconsistency in enforcement of law, required compliance, ambiguity between government agencies over enforcement and building approvals and unavailability of internationally certified but costly fire and electrical equipments, according to its first annual report published in its official website Tuesday.
However, the Alliance report also revealed that 50 per cent of its surveyed 587 factories are now carrying out the remedial part recommended by its experts while ten factories were fully or partially closed.
"Over the past year, we have made significant progress toward our goal of improving workers' safety in Bangladesh's RMG factories. But much work remains to be done. We will continue to address many challenges to achieving sustainable reforms," the report said.
"Forty per cent of the RMG factories are based in shared/multi-tenant buildings, making it difficult to ensure overall building compliance or coordinate safety programmes," it added explaining the challenges.
The challenges related to inspections that the North American group of apparel companies, retailers and brands is continuing to address are limited pool of locally-based, qualified and experienced engineers familiar with international safety standards, lack of transparency and price pressure and limited production capacity within individual factories. Others are unauthorised sub-contracting and lack of retailers' sufficient leverage within individual factories to drive change due to dispersed production.
"The cost of remediation is still prohibitive for some factories, especially smaller enterprises operated in rented buildings," it mentioned.
International fire, electrical and life safety standards are still new in Bangladesh while culture of safety is not well established here and literacy skills within the workers are limited, it noted.
The other challenges identified related to workers empowerment are weak worker representatives' structure like trade union and worker participation committee and workers' intimidation or harassment in exercising their rights for freedom of association.
"Workers have limited power to force change or require safety improvements. Factory management wields disproportionate influence," the report mentioned.
"As we move forward with the challenging task of remediation, we continue to recognise that the responsibility for safe factories is one shared by all stakeholders.
"Together with garment factory owners, trade unions, the international development community and the government of Bangladesh, we are working to achieve the kind of revolutionary change that makes a difference to millions of individual workers throughout the entire garment sector and to the nation as a whole,"  said Ellen Tauscher,  the Alliance Independent Chair.
Alliance's Managing Director Rabin Mesbah said the remaining factories that are yet to get the corrective action plan (CAP) would get the CAP by October next.
The remedial work is expected to take place within one and half year to two immediately after providing the CAP, he added.
Follow-up audit to ensure whether the safety equipments installed by the factories are up to the mark or not is still a challenge, he said. Scarcity of areas, scattered utility management, factory location just close to the main road and use of collapsible gate are also the concerns for ensuring fire safety.
"The factories that need relocation need time and depend on speedy development of  industrial park or other planned destination," he added.