A total of eight lakh RMG workers will be trained under the initiative “Improving Working Conditions in the RMG sector in Bangladesh,” Bangladesh Employers Federation (BEF) said yesterday. The BEF is implementing the project in association with ILO, Canada, Netherlands and the UK. Under the initiative, a total of 114 master trainers have already been trained up. The master trainers are senior trainers and certified by the International Training Centre of ILO, said BEF Secretary General Farooq Ahmed after the evaluation of Master Trainers Meeting. The master trainers will train 8,000 mid-level mangers by March 2016 through 400 training sessions, Farooq said, adding that the trained mid-level managers will afterwards train 8 lakh workers by the first quarter of 2017. “We want to expand the training programme beyond the RMG sector and extend it to leather industry,” he added. The BGMEA, BKMEA and BEF are demonstrating that they are very important actor in Bangladesh to bring about a cultural shift to put safety and safe workplace in the RMG, said Paolo Salvai, activity manager of ITC of ILO. “We worked very strictly with BGMEA, BKMEA and BEF to create a pool of master trainers to see trainer in action at company level,” said Salvai. Improving safety at workplace means improving compliance, success of RMG sector, and success in Bangladesh’s RMG means success for the entire country and society as a whole, he added. Indeed, capacity and skill development are underway in line with Occupational Safety and Health, said Tuomo Poutiainen, RMG programme manager of ILO in Dhaka. Commenting on the issues, Tuomo said: “It is not minor feed; it a major achievement in the making of safety.” “It is a challenging training in the sense that we are talking about 400 factories, 8,000 mid-level mangers and talking outreaching about half a million of workers’ rights,” he added. As per the training schedule, of the 8,000 mild-level managers, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) will train 4,500, while the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) 3,500. After the completion of mid-level mangers’ training, a mid-level trained manger will train 100 workers to reach the 8-lakh target. The component “Building the capacity of Occupational Safety Health (OHS) Systems” aims at reinforcing the capacity of workers, supervisors and managers in the RMG sector to improve the safety of their workplace. The key issues to be addressed in the RMG factories by the capacity building project are fire safety, electrical safety, good housekeeping, dangerous substances, ergonomics, noise protection and preventing violence at work.
