Union registrations in Bangladesh’s readymade garments (RMG) sector rose sharply last year, reflecting a significant progress in improving workplace conditions and strengthening workers’ rights in line with the country’s new labour law, the country head of the International Labour Organisation said yesterday.
“Working conditions and workers’ rights issues are receiving high priority in Bangladesh,” ILO Country Director Srinivas Reddy said at the closing session of a two-day training on Bangladesh’s labour law.
About 30 officials from the labour department attended the training that focussed on a 2013 amendment to the law. The ILO and the Department of Labour arranged the programme.
Reddy said working conditions in the RMG sector would only improve when workers’ rights were respected.
“Your actions can help create better, safer working conditions. Ultimately, this will increase investor confidence, bring more business and jobs to Bangladesh,” he said.
Since amendments to the Bangladesh Labour Act were made last July, there has been a dramatic increase in registering of new unions in the RMG sector, the ILO said in a press release.
In 2013, 96 new trade unions in the RMG sector were registered with the Department of Labour (DoL). In contrast, only two RMG trade unions were registered in the previous two years. At present, a total of 222 RMG unions are registered with the DoL, according to the ILO.
Speaking at the event, Dan W Mozena, the US ambassador in Dhaka, said the defiant owners of RMG factories who were “unwilling” to meet the international safety and labour rights standards should “close and leave” their businesses to keep the vibrant export-earning sector free from further risks.
“I think they have no right to make their profits by exploiting their workers, thus, putting the entire sector at risk as inevitable future Tazreen Fashions and Rana Plaza disasters destroy the Bangladesh brand,” the envoy said.
The ambassador, however, said some owners were fully engaged in supporting transformation of their individual factories and of the sector as a whole.
Mozena said the BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association) must ensure that all owners were part of the solution to transforming the sector to help the country become a global model for apparel production and export.
He also appreciated the government for its “powerful leadership” to transform the RMG sector following the roadmap of the GSP Action Plan and the Sustainability Compact.
“However, more remains to be done on numerous fronts, including hiring 200 new inspectors, establishing and utilising a publicly accessible database and proper implementation of the amended labour law,” Mozena said.
He hoped that more progress would be made on all the fronts before the April 15 deadline for submitting inputs for the next review of Bangladesh’s GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) privileges in the USA. Terming Tazreen Fashions and Rana Plaza tragedies as “horrible days” in Bangladesh’s history, the US envoy said both tragedies could have been avoided.
M Faizur Rahman, joint secretary of the labour ministry, and BGMEA vice president Reaz Bin Mahmood Sumon, also spoke on the occasion.