About 14 garment factories are set to face legal action like permanent closure upon their failure to initiate the required detailed engineering analysis (DEA) within the next seven working days, officials said.
The Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) has already issued letters to the managements of the apparel factories to this effect, they added.
"If they fail to initiate the DEA as per the recommendations of a panel, we will have no other option but to take legal action against them," DIFE Inspector General Syed Ahmed told the FE.
The DIFE gave reminders to the 14 manufacturing units that were yet to take any move towards conducting DEA, but got no results, he added.
Earlier in November last year, the DIFE had sought necessary directives from the labour ministry in this regard after finding that those units, having structural flaws, missed the deadline for starting their required DEA.
Mr Ahmed is also the head of the official review panel. The panel was formed in 2013 to decide on shutdown of any garment factory, if found risky or non-compliant during inspection by any of the three parties - national initiative, Accord or Alliance.
Finding risky, the panel announced immediate shutdown of 32 factories, while 26 units were partially closed and about 31 factories are operating following the recommendations of the panel, DIFE sources said. And 49 were asked to conduct DEA, they added.
Out of those 49 factories, only five had conducted DEA, 30 units are conducting it now, while the 14 are yet to take any step despite frequent reminders.
The factories were asked to start DEA immediately after visit of the review panel (within six weeks), they added.
Professor Mehedi Ahmed Ansari of BUET said DEA was recommended when building owners or manufacturers failed to provide some necessary documents including building designs.
All the 14 factories are located at rented buildings that also accommodate more factories and other establishments. Only two units are in operation while one is partially closed and the rest were shut down.
When contacted, Zahidul Haque Bhuiyan of MS Victory Knitting Pvt Ltd said until Tuesday he was yet to get such a letter and his unit was under the process of relocation.
"We followed many of the recommendations of the panel but some could not comply as the factory is located in a rented building that also accommodates other establishments," he noted.
Replying to a question, Anjan Kumar Das, Managing Director of RSI Apparels Ltd said, the unit was closed as per recommendation of the panel.
When asked the DIFE IG said, they were not officially informed about the shifting process of some of the units.
Without conducting DEA, none of the closed factories would able to reopen at the present buildings while those are in operation would not be allowed to do business with structural flaws, he warned.
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