The apparel apex body – BGMEA — has started preparing workers’ bio-metric database afresh in the country’s readymade garment (RMG) industry following failure of its majority factories to introduce it even after two and half years of the initiative, industry circles said. The bio-metric database would preserve basic information about a worker, including his or her identification, family details, record about the worker’s service details including factory and employer, dates of his or her joining or leaving the job and the reasons and also details of his/her skill. Following the government’s repeated pressure, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) in its last board meeting on October 17 again decided that all the garment factories must have their workers’ bio-metric database, sources said. “The meeting also renewed its deadline for the development of such a database till December 2015 and requested its members, who are yet to introduce such a system, to do the same within the set timeframe,” a BGMEA circular read. It also said that the database is important for successful implementation and use of a proposed fund for all export- oriented sectors as the fund would be collected at a rate of 0.03 per cent from each export receipt. “The BGMEA members need not to pay annual group insurance premium once the fund is fully functional,” it noted. “Bio-metric database will help preserve details of a worker including job details and also to identify the real garment workers,” Siddiqur Rahman, president of the BGMEA told the FE Thursday. The database is also necessary for proper use of the proposed fund for export sectors, he added. The importance of a worker’s central database was felt most after the Tazreen fire and the Rana Plaza collapse as its absence and proper identification of victims took a long time. It also allegedly delayed the process of compensation for the affected and their dependants. Immediately after the two incidents, in mid-2013, the BGMEA had instructed its member-factories initially at Ashulia to prepare a biometric database of their workers by August 30, 2013. The BGMEA then signed memoranda of understanding with two IT firms Systech and Tiger for preparing a biometric database of the garment workers. It also renewed its agreement with the IT firms recently, the BGMEA said adding that in the new agreement, the cost for preparing biometric database has been reduced and a factory owner will have to pay Tk 45,000 to Tk 0.15 million based on his factory’s manpower. The amount was around Tk 0.175 million to Tk 0.35 million in the previous deal. But till 2014, only 300 factories registered with the BGMEA for the service covering a total of 1,50,000 workers, according to the trade body. Some 4,200 factories are listed with the association of which 3,500 are in operation while 2,200 to 2,500 factories take utilisation declaration from the association, according to the BGMEA. According to industry insiders, some four million workers are employed in the RMG sector. They, however, attributed this failure to mounting pressure both from local and international arena to introduce a number of safety measures to ensure workplace safety in factories especially after the Tazreen fire and Rana Plaza building collapse, lack of finance and political turmoil. However, sources said, many small factories do not have any IT cell and skilled manpower and it is difficult to convince them as they are not familiar with the system. BGMEA leaders, however, said it is a difficult task to incorporate all the workers under a database and so it is taking time.
