Labour and Employment Minister Mujibul Haque Chunnu has expressed concerns over the RMG factory closures and feared that it might spark labour unrest ahead of Ramadan.
He said workplace safety and job security are equally important and must be considered as basic rights of the workers.
“Safety is a basic right, but it cannot be done making workers jobless,” the sate minister said while addressing a workshop on managing occupational safety and health.
He even raised questions about experience and qualification of the engineers employed by the Accord to inspect factories.
The workshop was jointly organised by Bangladesh government and International Labour Organisation (ILO), which was aimed at raising awareness about the issue in the garment factories to reduce risk of accidents.
“Thousands of RMG workers lost their jobs after safety shortfalls were unearthed,” Mujibul Haque mentioned hinting at the Accord and Alliance inspections.
Besides, factories are witnessing decline in orders from international buyers, leaving the owners at the risk of facing further shutdowns, he said.
Mujibul urged the buyers to increase orders and give better price so that the industry can ensure safety for workers.
Netherlands Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen stressed the need of well-functioning occupational safety and health committees in factories.
She hoped that the new committees were formed in a fair and transparent manner with appropriate representation of workers including women.
“It is important how to enable factory owners to implement the new occupational safety and health policy,” she said.
In November 2013, Bangladesh government adopted a National Occupational Safety and Health Policy as part of its response to the commitments made in the National Action Plan on Fire and Building Safety in July last year.
The government and ILO are implementing a three-and-a-half year project of $24.21m funded by Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to improve working conditions in the Bangladeshi RMG industry.
Srinivas B Reddy, ILO Country Director for Bangladesh, said, “The aim of the workshop is to protect workers from incident creating awareness among the representatives of employers, especially the mid-level management.”
Reddy said the workshop would directly contribute to having safe workplaces.
“Active functioning of the mandatory occupational safety and health committees and the trade unions, whatever exist, should contribute to greater participation of workers in workplace safety measures,” he emphasised.
The event was also attended by Gerben De Jong, Ambassador of the Netherlands in Bangladesh, Mikail Shipar, Bangladesh’s Labour Secretary and representatives from trade unions, textile bodies – BGMEA and BKMEA, National Coordination Committee for Workers’ Education and IndustriALL Bangladesh Council.