Apparel manufactures have come down heavily on the inspection being conducted by the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh and Alliance for Bangladesh Worker safety as some of the factory owners fear shutdown of their units following their strict check-up.
They came up with their anger at a meeting titled “Sharing of Views on Current Scenario of RMG Sector” at Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) office in the city yesterday.
The meeting was aimed at exchanging views with Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed on the latest conditions prevailing in the country’s apparel sector.
Tofail, however, tried to calm down the agitated RMG owners just saying: “We would soon be able to sort out the crisis by forming a multi-stakeholder committee comprised of BGMEA, BKMEA, ILO and related ministries.”
He assured them that the committee will identify the real cause of the problems and find out solutions to the crisis – a strategy policymakers always try.
“As I don’t have all the power to solve the crisis, I can only cooperate you, please come to me and if necessary, I will take you to the finance minister with a request to hear your concerns,” Tofail told the RMG makers.
Assuring them to sit with Accord and Alliance, the minister said, “We can also get good lessons from our foreign friends Accord and Alliance.”
Accord, a platform of 150 European retailers and Alliance another platform of 27 North American retailers has made commitment to improve fire and structural integrity of RMG sector.
As of Friday, March 7, the Alliance has inspected over 240 factories while the Accord engineers inspected around 70 factories and following the inspection a review panel ordered to suspend production of two factories.
They made it after the catastrophic incident at the Rana Plaza building collapse that killed over 1,100 workers.
Accord will inspect 1,500 factories and Alliance over 600 factories following a common set of standards.
Although the buyers did not increasethe prices as per their promise, they are shutting down our factories in the name of compliances, alleged SM Mannan Kochi, second vice president of BGMEA.
“A vested quarter is hatching a conspiracy to destroy this sector in the name of safety and security issue.’’
It is feared that around 60% factory are likely to face shut down in the backdrop of the ongoing inspection conducted by Accord and Alliance and it is really difficult to get rid of this, said Nasiruddin Ahmed Chowdhury, first vice president of BGMEA.
Managing Director of Patriot GroupMd. Iqbal Hossain alleged that the Inditex had wrongly classified his factory as risky even after a thorough inspection.
“Besides, the buyers pulled out orders from us as the Inditex sent a wrong message to all the buyers about our factory safety, which ruins my business.’’
But, the BUET and American engineers after an inspection positively certified our factory just with an advice to remove the tinted-roof, said Hossain, who was seemingly crying for justice, protection and preventionform any sort of conspiracy.
If the trade unionism is forcibly established in the factories in the name of compliance, it would be difficult to maintain law and order in the RMG sector, said Shafiul Islam Mohiuddin, former BGMEA president.
After the Rana Plaza building collapse, we are under severe pressure on safety issues, while our competitors India and Pakistan are emerging as a threat to us, said a factory owner Dhali who also categorically mentioned that India imported huge machinery in a year whereas Bangladesh could not import such a bulk amount of machinery even in the in last ten years.
