The government is considering legal action against the readymade garment factories which are not implementing corrective action plan provided by a government-set review committee for ensuring structural, fire and electrical safety at the apparel units. Recently, Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a consortium of North American buyers, submitted a list of its 11 supplier factories to the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments saying that the progresses the factories made in implementing the recommendations by the review committee were not at all satisfactory. Alliance said seven out of the 11 factories had got time from 412 days to 642 days to implement the review committee’s recommendations like conducting detailed engineering assessment, removal of water tanks and columns from the rooftop and keeping a specified area of the building empty until remediation is completed. The four other factories got time from 96 days to 17 days for demolishing unauthorised cantilevers, propping under the cantilever parts and removal of additional load from the structures. According to Alliance, four of the 11 factories were asked to keep the factories closed until the review committee’s recommendations are implemented but none of them suspended production in their factories. ‘On December 6, we received a list from Alliance and asked the deputy inspector general of the DIFE to prepare a report on the present status of the factories. If the units fail to implement the recommendations of the government-set committee, they will have to face legal action,’ Syed Ahmed, inspector general of the DIFE, told New Age on Sunday. ‘If necessary, we will close down the factories and no one will be allowed to run their business without ensuring safety,’ he said. According to the Alliance letter, the initiative has so far inspected 837 factories and out of them 36 factories has been referred to the review committee as the safety factor was critical at the factories. The review committee, comprising of representatives from the government, Accord on Fire and Building Safety, Alliance, BUET and Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, provided corrective action plan to the factories to ensure safety but not a single recommendation has been implemented by any factory so far. CDF Design (BD), located at Tejgaon in Dhaka, got 642 days for implementing the recommendations made by the review panel but the factory failed to make any progress, Alliance claimed. Md Iqbal Hossain, proprietor of the company, said that the progress was slow as the factory building was rented. He said that the building owner implemented more than 80 per cent of the review committee’s recommendations and the rest would be implemented within the next six months. Saiful Islam, managing director of Nazia Apparels, said that the implementation work was in progress and it would take time as all the issues were very much technical. ‘Alliance asked me to implement the review panel’s recommendations within seven days, otherwise buyers will suspend business with my company,’ he said. ‘I am trying but problem is that the building is a rented one,’ Saiful said. The review committee asked Nazia Apparels to suspend its production until all the recommendations are implemented but the factory is in operation. An official of the BGMEA told New Age that the trade body asked its member factories to comply with the review committee’s suggestions immediately.
