Strict enforcement of laws, rules suggested

A government committee suggested strict enforcement of the existing laws and rules to compel non-compliant apparel factories to abide by the required workplace safety and welfare standards, sources said.
 "Raising penalty won't bring any success unless the laws and rules are enforced. So, we recommended proper implementation of those to control the errant factories," said a member of the committee.
He said the report was submitted on Wednesday. "We did not recommend raising penalties, since we found most of them hardly were enforced ever."
The ministry of commerce (MoC) in an inter-ministerial meeting on August 5 last formed the technical committee headed by MoC joint secretary Atiqur Rahman to make recommendations on raising penalties for the factories not following the existing laws and rules.
After the deadly Rana Plaza collapse, the last big disaster in the readymade garment (RMG) sector, it was observed that a good number of apparel factories did not follow the laws and rules on trade, labour, fire safety and building construction.
The committee members were of the opinion that had all the factories followed the existing laws and rules, the deadly incidents like the Tazreen Fashions fire and the loss of 1,130 lives in the Rana Plaza collapse could have been averted.
The technical committee was also formed in the face of suspension of the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) facility for Bangladeshi products in the US market over the allegations of poor working conditions and the lack of workplace safety.
The committee was also asked to identify the obstacles hindering enforcement of the existing laws and rules. Besides, it was also asked to recommend how to ensure legal actions in line with the existing laws and rules against the errant factories.
Another member of the committee, referring to the Rana Plaza collapse, said it was for the first time that some apparel factory owners were sent to jail.
He said, as per the Section 19 of the amended Bangladesh Labour Law-2006, options were there for sending people to jail and imposing financial penalty for violating the law. The amendment also raised the volume of penalties in some other areas.
Besides, he said the 'fire safety law-2003' provides for 1 to 7 years' imprisonment for violation of the law. "But it has been found many of the provisions have never been enforced against any factory owner," he added.
The committee found that there was also a scope for cancellation of factory and fire safety licences for not following the law. They found the existing penalties 'good enough' for forcing the non-compliant factories to follow the laws and rules.