News Report The International Labor Organization (ILO) has expressed dissatisfaction with the unwillingness of some 88 RMG factories to participate in the National Initiative (NI) Safety Inspection, which may earn some negative impression about the country’s RMG sector, according to a source. The ILO in its communication to the BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturer and Exporters’ Association) on October 11 last set the October 25 deadline for completion of inspection otherwise they will close down the free inspection process. After the collapse of the Rana Plaza at Savar, a project namely “Improving Working Conditions in the RMG sector” was undertaken with the financial assistance of Royal Netherlands Government and Canada. The UK government is providing technical assistance. A National Tripartite Plan (NAP) of Action on Fire and Structural Integrity in the RMG sector was signed on July 25, 2013. The ILO has been given the responsibility to look after the implementation process of the NAP. Accordingly, the ILO took up a massive plan to inspect around 3,500 RMG factories and they were given June, 2015 as deadline for completion of the inspection. Steve Needhan, ILO’s chief communication officer told The News Today on Thursday that they had completed the inspection of around 93 per cent RMG factories within the June deadline. The rest could not be completed because of the factory owners’ non-cooperation. The non-compliant owners have developed a habit of seeking time which was extended twice. But it could not yield any result. The ILO chief communication officer said that they had set new deadline of October 25 for completion of inspection and it would not be extended further. He said that the non-compliant RMG factories will lose their RMG export rights. BGMEA president Siddiqur Rahman told The News Today over phone most of the non-compliant factories are interested to complete inspection with the ACCORD, an alliance of European Union buyers and they will do it. But Steve Needhan said that the non-compliant factories inspection is not under the jurisdiction of the ACCORD. They have to complete inspection with help of the ILO. BGMEA senior vice-president Faruque Hasan urged all non-compliant factory owners to take part in inspection by the UN organization. He warned that the owners association will stop all kinds of services and sub-contracts to the non-inspected factories. “RMG sector or other compliant factories cannot suffer for non-compliant issues. We are zero tolerant on safety issues”, he said. While commenting on the outcome of the inspection, the ILO executive said that we did not find existence of about 34 factories. Regarding the safety measures he said good progress has been made, but a lot of things have to be done.
