The labour ministry is going to take legal action against 319 readymade garment factories that are structurally vulnerable. To this effect the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments started issuing notices to the units which have failed to comply with the government recommendations to make the units safer, DIFE officials said. Preliminary safety assessments in 1,549 readymade garment factories have been conducted under the national initiative with the support of International Labour Organisation. Of 1,549 factories, 319 were identified as having vulnerable structures and the factory authorities were asked to conduct detailed engineering assessment of their factory buildings to find out the safety factors due to lack of structural design and drawing. The DIFE officials said that out of 319 factories, 22 completed DEA, 38 started process and four factories were closed under the recommendations of the government set review panel. As many as 255 factories are yet to start the process for conducting DEA and some of them disagreed to go through the process. ‘Most of the factories which have been asked to conduct the DEA are yet to start the process and some of them have disagreed to do so. We have started issuing notice to the factories so that their authorities can start the process of DEA and necessary remediation works,’ Syed Ahmed, inspector general of the DIFE, told New Age on Tuesday. He said that the letters, asking to know the status of factory remediation, had been sent to the four district offices of the DIFE and the offices would forward the letters to the factory concerns. After receiving the letter from the DIFE the factory authorities will have to inform their remediation progress to the department within seven days; otherwise, they have to face legal action as per the labour act, Syed said. He also said that the factories which would not comply with the government recommendation to ensure safety would have to face closure. According to the DIFE statistics, corrective action plan implement progress in 73 factories is zero, 286 factories achieved zero progress in structural remediation, 160 factories made no progress in electrical remediation and 129 factories made zero progress in implementing fire safety-related corrective action plan. After the Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed more than 1,100 people, mostly garment workers, in April 2013, North American retailers constituted the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety and European retailers formed the 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 in the factories from where they procure products. At the same time the government in association with the ILO launched another inspection programme in the RMG factories which are not suppliers of the Accord and Alliance signatories. The Alliance has so far inspected more than 800 factories while the Accord inspected more than 1,600 factories.
