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Readymade garment factories which were inspected under the joint initiative of the Bangladesh government and the International Labour Organisation have made 48 per cent progress in remediation in the last six years.
A total of 1,549 factories were inspected under the national Initiative, backed by the ILO and funded by the governments of Canada, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, after the Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013 that killed more than 1,100 people, mostly RMG workers.
Following the tragic incident, a total of 3,780 garment factories were assessed under three initiatives, European retailers’ platform Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, North American buyers’ platform Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and the governmentled and ILO-supported National Initiative.
After completing the inspections under the national initiative in December 2015, the government repeatedly set deadlines for fixing safety faults but most of the factories showed little response.
To expedite the remediation at the RMG factories, the government established the Remediation Coordination Cell in 2017.
According to the Labour Inspection Report 2020-21, 793 out of 1,549 factories are now active and the units have made 48 per cent progress in remediation as of July this year.
Of the factories, 630 were closed, 100 relocated and 14 units shifted to the Accord and Alliance lists.
The report said that 535 factories had completed less than 50 per cent of the remediation works, 95 factories had progressions between 50 per cent to 70 per cent and 94 factories had achieved more than 70 per cent to 80 per cent progress.
It said that 120 factories had achieved more than 90 per cent progress in remediation.
The RCC identified seven challenges in completing the remediation works at the factories assessed under National Initiative.
The key challenges are incapability of the factories in carrying out remediation works and the majority of the units are located in rented buildings and operated under sub-contracts.
It also identified non-cooperation from shared or rented building owners, reluctance of factory owners towards remediation works due to lack of export opportunity and lack of awareness regarding workplace safety as the challenges.
(NA)
