Remediation financing for the readymade garment industry, computerised registration, accurate lists and data of factories and establishments and strong coordination among inspection authorities are key challenges to ensure workplace safety, said a report.
Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishment (DIFE) of Ministry of Labor and Employment disclosed the challenges in its report titled “Labour Inspection System in Bangladesh.”
State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque Chunnu unveiled the report at his office in the capital yesterday.
In the report, the DIFE said it has made a total of 24,107 inspection visits in RMG factories, shops and other organisations in 2014, where it found 44,347 cases of violation of rules in safety, occupational health, maternity protection, terms and conditions. Most of the violations were found in the non-RMG factories.
Mujibul Haque Chunnu said to ensure occupational health safety and providing treatment, the government has taken initiative to establish twp hospitals in Gazipur and Narayanganj with capacity of 300 bed facilities each, the minister said.
“we are also working establishment of the dormitory for the workers,” he said.
“There is no scope of second Rana Plaza incident as we have inspected all factories and closed 37 factories among them, which were found risky to workers safety,” state minister said.
“There are some factories with risk factors. They are going through remediation.”
In inspection and safety issues, the government has given importance on the RMG sector after the Rana Plaza incident because over 81% export earnings came from the sector, said Mujibul.
He said the RMG owners won’t be able to escape workers’ rights after the labour act had been amended.
He urged the buyers to increase prices of products as the manufacturers had to spent a lot to improve safety standards.
“The challenges for ensuring workers’ safety are to develop accurate lists and data on factories and establishments as we cannot take measures if do not have the pin-point information about the sector,” Syed Ahmed Inspector General of DIFE said in his key note presentation.
“Other major challenges are remediation financing for the RMG and strong coordination among inspection authorities as it needs holistic approach,” he said.
According to him, as methods of registration and records keeping are still paper based, their effectiveness is limited and that is why computerised registration and record keeping and a well-functioning database is needed.
DIFE has, therefore, embarked on efforts to modernise its current database including procurement of database equipment and the recruitment and training of staff to manage it, Inspector General of DIFE said.
Inspections are targeted to report violation and sanctions. More work is needed to promote a culture of prevention by the inspectors.
“We are working on modernisation of inspection system through digitisation so that no one can temper the findings as it would be recorded instantly from the spot,” said Syed Ahmed.
Senior Labour and Employment Secretary Mikail Shipar and International Labour Organisation country director in Bangladesh Srinivas B Reddy were also present.
