Remediation Coordination Cell under the Ministry of Labour and Employment is now working to obtain capability of inspecting RMG factories, risk assessment and overseeing factory safety by 2018. State Minister for Labour and Employment Mujibul Haque made the observation at a meeting with visiting International Labour Organisation (ILO) Director-General Guy Ryder at the city’s Bangabandhu International Conference Centre yesterday. Mujibul expressed the hope that there would be no need of Accord-Alliance after 2018, as the government is working on to enhance factory safety overseeing capacity of local bodies. He informed Guy Ryder that there are 264 government factory inspectors in the country now and the process of appointing 89 more inspectors are on to achieve the capacity by the timeframe. During the meeting, the ILO DG put emphasis on factory inspection, especially those in readymade apparel sector, and wanted to know from the minister about the present trend of trade unions to ensure workers’ rights. In reply, the labour minister said the government is committed to ensuring workers’ rights and has approved some 8,000 trade unions following Rana Plaza tragedy, of which nearly 400 unions are for RMG industry. The government has taken a number of initiatives for improving factory environment, especially workers’ safety in RMG factories, he added. The government has brought all RMG units under its factory inspection programme, labour law saw amendment, a national policy has been formulated to ensure workers’ health security and RCC is now working in this connection. Guy Ryder was pleased to hear positive things about workers’ safety measures. He arrived in Dhaka on a four-day visit on Friday, according to a ministry release.
