The government is likely to form a national body to oversee the progress in remediation works in the readymade garment factories where the initial structural, fire and electrical safety inspections have been completed. In several meetings with the International Labour Organisation, stakeholders in the RMG sector discussed the issue and agreed that a separate platform is needed to ensure proper remediation and post remediation monitoring in the garment factories. According to the decision of the meetings, the ILO will prepare a concept note on the national remediation body and it will be placed to the labour ministry for approval of the government. ‘Following the initial inspection in 1,475 garment factories under the national initiative it has been appeared that formation of a national body is required for the proper implementation of the corrective action plan in the factories,’ Syed Ahmed, inspector general of the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, told New Age on Tuesday. He said that the name of the initiative was yet to be finalised but it would be a national remediation body where the representatives from Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defence, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association and the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology would be included. Syed said a team of engineers would be recruited in the remediation body and they would be well trained for implementing the corrective action plan including retrofitting, renovation, detailed engineering assessment and other remediation works related to fire and electrical safety. The DIFE chief hoped that the team would be formed within three months before starting the remediation works in the factories of national initiatives as the factory owners had been asked to submit the CAP within the time. ‘We have a vibrant engineering society and we want to form an efficient national body among them so that the team can implement corrective action plan and post remediation follow-up inspection in the RMG sector,’ he said. Syed also said that to make the national body technologically sound the ILO would provide logistic support and at one stage the team would monitor the safety condition in whole garment industry after 2018 when the safety initiative of European and North American buyers’ platforms would end. After the Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, in April 2013, North American retailers including Walmart and Gap, formed the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and EU brands and buyers formed Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh undertaking a five-year plan, which set timelines and accountability for inspections and training and workers’ empowerment programmes. The initiatives completed inspections in the garment factories from where they procured products and now the factories are in the remediation process. The safety programmes of the Accord and the Alliance are scheduled to end in 2018. An official of the BGMEA told New Age that the government and the ILO took the initiative to form a highly qualified national engineering team that would be capable to oversee the safety situation in the supplier factories of the Accord and the Alliance after 2018.
