Bangladesh\\\'s \\\'messy\\\' RMG sector tidies up

After Rana Plaza collapse, Bangladesh's readymade garment (RMG) industry faced unprecedented pressure from buyers abroad to improve working conditions in factories. Following the disaster Western buyers faced flak back home for sourcing their products from 'unsafe working environments'. Buyers from European Union (EU) formed the group Accord and those from North America formed Alliance to look into compliance issues in Bangladesh's RMG units. The Bangladesh government formed a review committee to analyse their reports on working conditions in the more than 3,500 garment factories in the country. Accord is monitoring working conditions in 1,619 factories and the Alliance is monitoring that in another 700. These factories produce 86% of the country’s readymade garments, which are exported to European and American markets. Both Accord and Alliance have come up with reports after assessment of conditions in about 700 factories. The review panel of the government, on the basis of the reports, has shut down 13 factories in four buildings in Dhaka and Chittagong.
What impact the Rana Plaza collapse has had on Bangladesh’s RMG industry?
Hafiz Ahmed Mazumder, one of the industry’s early entrepreneurs, says the RMG industry was initially in a messy condition, but the new generation entrepreneurs are now paying a lot of attention to compliance issues. Mazumder says some are trying to come up with ‘international standard factories.’ At least 90% of factories are now located in good and safe buildings, he said. Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) researcher Zaid Bakht, however, said the fears of losing business did not happen. “We have achieved a 13% growth in RMG even after Rana Plaza.” As the Rana Plaza disasters drew global attention to issues of workplace safety and labour rights in the country, the government, buyers, International Labour Organisation and workers came together in an unprecedented effort to jointly improve the conditions in the industry. “So many initiatives have never been taken before for this sector. In light of the accident, an unprecedented amount of coordinated programmes have been taken,” he said. BIDS Senior Researcher Naznin Ahmed agrees that the factory compliance issues have received a lot of importance. Last December, minimum wage for RMG workers was raised by almost 76% to Tk 5,300 per month. The government and owners have also softened up to the idea of allowing trade unions, according to bdnews24.com.