US sees important progress in garment sector

The US government has acknowledged the significant progress that has been achieved through coordinated efforts by the government to protect worker rights and ensure workplace safety and standards since the Rana Plaza tragic accident a year ago, reports BSS.
"In the last year, the government of Bangladesh has made progress in some important respects," a joint statement, issued late Wednesday (Bangladesh time) by the Department of State, the Office of the US Trade Representative, the US Agency for International Development and the Department of Labor, said.
The statement was issued to mark the one-year anniversary of the building collapse at Rana Plaza in Savar that claimed over 1,100 lives and injured thousands more.
The statement cited that Bangladesh had allowed over 140 unions to register, permitted re- registration of a leading labour rights non-governmental organisation that had been stripped of its registration, agreed to an ambitious plan for safety inspections and factory-level monitoring and remediation across the garment sector in collaboration with the International Labour Organisation (ILO), begun the hiring of new labour inspectors, and conducted preliminary safety inspections.
However, the US suggested making the labour law and the Export Processing Zone law more conducive to establishing and ensuring basic worker rights.
It also advised that the hiring process of factory inspectors should be expedited so that workers can secure safer working conditions and better wages and enable Bangladesh to realize its full economic potential.
Compared with the Triangle Shirtwaist disaster in the United States over one hundred years ago, the statement said, Rana Plaza and the Tazreen factory fire in November 2012 have become potent symbols of the significant and unnecessary risks that many workers are still forced to take in order to earn a living and support their families.
"As we mourn the victims, we are again called to action so that tragedies like Rana Plaza and Tazreen never happen again," the joint statement said.
It said all stakeholders in Bangladesh - including the government, employers, and buyers of Bangladeshi products - bear a responsibility for ensuring safe working conditions and the worker rights to have a voice to protect their interests.
"To that end, we are working with all stakeholders to implement the Action Plan we laid out after President Obama suspended Bangladesh's benefits under the Generalised System of Preferences programme last June", the statement said.
It also mentioned that the US government was closely coordinating with the European Union and ILO on worker rights and factory safety in Bangladesh.