Reports to the parliamentary standing committee on the labour ministry indicate around 11,000 workers at 16 factories have lost their jobs so far following government safety inspections.
With inspections continuing by the Accord and Alliance, industry sources privately fear that many more, possibly hundreds, of factories may be found unsafe and forced to close.
The outlook for workers is bleak as factory owners are focusing on retrenchment of jobs in order to pay for the cost of building and safety improvements.
In principle, long-term co-operation between buyers and factory owners may well help bring new investment and better factories offering more secure jobs.
However, this does not change the immediate picture and the government is convening a crisis committee to look at ways of alleviating the unrest which these job cutbacks are expected to create.
While this committee may help bring up the issue of job losses, it does not address the cause of the crisis, only its symptoms.
The government can and should be far more pro-active. It owns or controls a large amount of idle land which can used to create new export processing zones, where new, safe factory buildings can be developed and leased to factory owners.
Both owners and workers in factories which are closing due to safety issues can benefit from such freeing up of underutilised state land.
This would be the most effective way for the government to alleviate hardship and help the industry to invest for future growth.
