Govt set to make public inspection reports on 600 RMG factories

The government is set to make public the inspection reports on about 600 garment factories, assessed by both the government the western retailers-appointed experts, by next month following the pressure from international arena including rights groups, sources said.
Some 200 reports of each from three initiatives-Accord, Alliance and BUET-are expected to be published in the first phase, they added.
The National Tripartite Committee headed by Labour Secretary Mikail Shipar approved the common template on August 26 for making all the inspection reports public, they added.
The latest move has come in the wake of upcoming meeting with secretaries from foreign, commerce and labour ministries, which will also be participated by foreign diplomats including the EU, the US and Canada in the second week of next month, they said .
However, the BGMEA has expressed its concern over the regular follow- up of the reports saying if the updates of assessed factories are not taken into account even after their corrective measures, then it might create confusion among the buyers and cause serious problems.
Recently, the EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gutch and the Human Rights Watch (HRW), separately, have called upon the government to disclose the findings of ongoing apparel factory inspections carried out by the government and other groups both in Bengali and English to help the workers to know actual conditions of their workplaces.
"The NTC has approved the common format which has been developed in association with the International Labour Organisation and directed the concerned department to take necessary measures in this regard," Mr Shipar said.
He said the summary of the garment factories' assessment reports would be published shortly.
When communicated, Syed Ahmed, Inspector General of Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE), said they have already requested the Accord and the Alliance authorities to send their assessment findings to the DIFE within September 5, next.
"We have planned to publish the summary of the inspections reports including the problems and the recommendations," he told the FE Thursday.
All the details of the inspection findings might not be available on the website, but stakeholders concerned would get the details through proper channel, he added.
BUET has so far assessed 252 garment factories and submitted its reports of 200 units to the DIFE in May. But till date no reports have been published.
On the other hand, Accord and Alliance have already made some of their assessment reports including corrective action plan public on their respective websites. They are also in the process of uploading more reports in the coming days.
In July 2013, Bangladesh, the EU and the ILO agreed to a compact on labour rights and factory safety which was later joined by the US government, to create a publicly accessible database listing all RMG and knitwear factories, as a platform for reporting labour, fire and building safety inspections.
Md Shahidullah Azim, vice president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), requested the government to make the inspection reports public without grading.
"Timely follow- up of such reports publication is most important," he said explaining that it would create serious problems including confusion among the buyers if any factory inspection report is not updated even after the corrective measures are taken within the stipulated time frame.